In the Piney Woods

illust. by Kimberly Bulcken Root. Melanie Kroupa Books/Farrar, Straus & Giroux. Grades K-5.

Long before Ella was born, her grandpa, “strong and straight and singing,” built a little house at the edge of the piney woods. Once this house was roomy. Now it’s packed tight with Ella, and her family, and Grandpa, old now—his body “bent like the branches of the low pines.” Ella loves the secrets that Grandpa shows her in the woods: how the sticky cones of the dwarf pitch pines stay locked up tight, “waiting,” as Grandpa tells her, for the heat from a fire that will allow them to open and release their seeds. “Everything has its time,” says Grandpa.

This spirited picture book, with evocative watercolors that capture the depth of feeling between Ella and Grandpa, tells a powerful story that is as much a celebration of life as it is an honest, reassuring book about aging and death, as well as a book that can be used to discuss the ecology of forests.

“Schotter brings a gentle hand to the big questions of death and rebirth, while Root’s intimate watercolors convey a joy tempered by grief, and grief healed with family love.” Publishers Weekly

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