A review by lispylibrarian
The Book Tree by Paul Czajak

5.0

The Book Tree is a fun story about what can happen when all books are taken away. Arlo accidentally drops a book on the mayor of his town's head while he is reading in a tree and as a result, the mayor takes all of the books in town and tears them up into tiny pieces. One tiny piece is all that is left of them and Arlo watches it get buried in the dirt.

Arlo observes his town fall apart as there are no books left. There are no cookbooks, so the restaurant can only serve dry cereal, the actors at the theatre have no plays to act out, and the library-Arlo's favorite place in town-is completely empty. Finally, Arlo decides to write his own stories and grow his own book tree. Arlo saves the town as it flourishes once again thanks to books!

This book is gorgeous! The illustrations are like I've never seen before as they are whimsical and the people are not drawn as "white." I really enjoyed this picture book and I think that it will be welcome in all libraries. It would be especially fun to read during Banned Books Week in September.

The Book Tree will be published September 30, 2018 by Barefoot Books.

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