Up in the Leaves: The True Story of the Central Park Treehouses

Gr 1–3—As a child, Bob Redman preferred nature to the densely crowded New York City streets. He found a secret spot in the branches of Central Park, where "each tree has its own world, every limb an adventure." Gathering wood and rope from dumpsters, he built a tree house in the park—a place where he could go to escape the "roar, clang, bang" of down below. One day, his hideaway mysteriously disappeared. Redman made another. Then it happened again. This game continued over time until Redman, now an adult in the narrative, built the biggest tree house of all. Park employees caught him in the act and offered him a job tending to the trees—so long as he agreed to stop building. The epilogue contains a short biography and photograph of the real Bob Redman. Christoph's digitally rendered illustrations mimic watercolor, offering beautiful hues and visible, delicate brush strokes. Leafy endpapers make the reading experience akin to climbing up the trees and sitting alongside Redman. Onomatopoeic phrases like "tap, tap, tap" and "whoosh, whoosh, whoosh" pepper the text with read-aloud potential but the story feels slightly oversimplified. In favor of its whimsical tone, the text evades the fact that Redman is rewarded with a job for his rule breaking. Readers may have lingering questions about why the tree houses were continuously taken down.