Read for Empathy

The Read for Empathy Collection 2023

Personal choice: The Boy who Grew a Tree by Polly Ho-Yen; illustrated by Sojung Kim-McCarthy (Knights Of, 2022)

Some books are so good they deserve TWO blog-posts, and Polly Ho-Yen's The Boy who Grew a Tree - my top choice from the frankly outstanding Read for Empathy Collection 2023 - is definitely one of them! As with the other bloggers on the tour this year, I was amazed by the quality, range and depth of the choice of books, but when I saw The Boy who Grew a Tree was on there, there really was, for me, no deliberation necessary. You can read my first blog about the book here, which gives a summary of what it's all about and why I love it so much: https://afewtoread.blogspot.com/2022/04/the-boy-who-grew-tree.html. In that blog I've included a little Reading Guide, to use with younger readers too. 

There were so many wonderful books to choose from in the Collection but, on behalf of Empathy Lab, I wanted to champion The Boy who Grew a Tree for the following reasons that I felt made this the stand-out top choice for me. 

1. It has a quiet, beautiful voice. Reading Susan M. Cain's book, Quiet, early in my teaching career showed me the especial strength that introverts have. Her words have stuck with me as a teacher, aiming to find a way to create a balance in the classroom between the outwardly confident and the quietly thoughtful. There is strength in both! In The Boy who Grew a Tree, there is a gentleness to the passion that runs through this little novel: it is a bracing inspiration to quiet children everywhere and speaks directly to them all. 

2. It celebrates libraries. I'm sure I don't need to convince readers here of the truth that libraries are the at the centre of civilisation! Repositories of knowledge and understanding, we are so fortunate that libraries are there for us ALL. They must be treasured and protected to the highest degree.

3. It draws much-needed attention to the importance of (reading) communities. As a Reading teacher, it's the scene near the end of The Boy who Grew a Tree, where everyone reads to each other in the branches of the tree, as the Utopia that I work towards in my small way every day. By reading and talking together, we connect over stories. We listen to how those stories affect us all in different ways, because of our glorious uniqueness! And we are given a glimpse of what it means to be someone else...and learn much about how that understanding can change us for the better.

The Boy Who Grew a Tree is a book that I love so much, and I'm so proud to have been asked to take part in this blog tour, because now I hope that you will go out and find a copy to read. If you've read it already...read it again with someone else! 

And as I said before...

Everyone deserves a good story.

The Boy Who Grew a Tree by Polly Ho-Yen, illustrated by Sojung Kim McCarthy, is published by Knights Of.