The Linden Tree

Name: The Linden Tree
Brand: Blackstone Audiobooks
Availability: InStock
Author: Ellie Mathews
ISBN: 9781433228834

Author: Ellie Mathews

Narrator: Marguerite Gavin

Unabridged: 4 hr 1 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Blackstone Audio, Inc.

Published: 07/18/2008

Categories: Children's Fiction

Synopsis

When elevenyearold Katy Sue loses her mother, Edna, to meningitis, she and her family must adjust to life without her. The rural farm in the 1940s provides a natural backdrop that is rhythmic and routine but unforgiving, even when a family member dies. The houses haunted emptiness is filled only when Aunt Katherine, Ednas youngest sister, comes to the familys aid, as does Jake, an ornithologist and family friend. Katy Sue, the youngest of the three children, struggles to define her place in the family and understand what the loss of her mother means for her now. With the guidance of her teacher, Mrs. Breton, Katy Sue begins to contemplate the shape of her family and the farm through drawing, a process that allows her to accept her fathers soontobe wife, farm life without her mother, and, eventually, her own role within the family.

About Ellie Mathews

Ellie Mathews has been published in Cricket and Cicada. She is the author of Ambassador to the Penguins, a nonfiction book about her grandfather, the naturalist Robert Cushman Murphy. She has received a grant from the Seattle Artists Program for Literary Artists and a fellowship from the Fishtrap Writers’ Conference. She lives in Port Townsend, Washington.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Cricket on January 13, 2019

A quiet story set in the 1940’s of a family adjusting to the sudden loss of the mother to meningitis. Told in first person through eleven year old Katy Sue, the plot focuses on the emotions of this close knit Iowa farming family. Genuine and warming. Middle readers who enjoy historical fiction or fa......more

Goodreads review by Jennifer on January 30, 2012

This is a beautiful story of a young girl and her family coming to terms with the sudden loss of their mother from illness. From the first lines, you are pulled into the world of rural farm life in 1940s America and the sobering reality that life can indeed be very fleeting. It's a serious novel but......more

Goodreads review by Casle on February 04, 2018

This is a very well written story about a family who has just buried their Mama under the linden tree. Not really YA, no major complications, somewhat mundane.......more

Goodreads review by Chris on September 16, 2016

Touching story, easy read. I like the authors descriptive way she pulls you into the story. Almost like a soft bounce.......more

Goodreads review by Kathy on August 31, 2012

The story takes place in the 40's or 50's on a farm. Though I did not grow up on a farm, my mother did & we would visit the farm every summer when we were small. The author's words made me FEEL the physical place of the farm - she was descriptive without being overdone. I could see in my mind what s......more