Kenzie’s Little Tree

K-Gr 2–Kenzie loves Saturdays, because in her family, those days are for adventures. On one particular Saturday, Kenzie’s family goes to a local garden store, where she selects a tree for their backyard. Even though this tree does not appear to be as robust as many others, it possesses an inner strength that Kenzie and her family celebrate. As the seasons pass, Kenzie’s mother’s chronic illness requires her to spend time in the hospital on more than one occasion. Through it all, the tree continues to persevere, just as Kenzie and her family demonstrate their own resilience as they navigate difficult experiences together. This poetic picture book is a love letter to all families who manage chronic illness on a regular basis. As the span of a year passes, words depicting each individual season’s magic are presented, which helps readers to better navigate the breadth of time rendered within this story. Accompanying the text are muted illustrations of the white family through the seasons; these are filled with soft hues, and these visuals echo the varied human emotions described within the story. The images are the focus of the book, and they work well alongside the narrative to help readers better understand the nuances in the writing. Due to the complexity of the plot and the longer stretches of text used on several pages, plus clumsy switches in tense—“Each season blew in changes, yet her tree stands bold and bright”—this book is best suited to early elementary readers.