Jacob's Tree - Hardcover

Keller, Holly

3.15

27 ratings by Goodreads

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0688159958 ISBN 13: 9780688159955

Publisher: Greenwillow, 1999

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Jacob is the smallest bear in his family and although everyone tells him he will grow, he finds it hard to wait, so he takes vitamins and does stretches to speed up the growth process, but with little success.

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About the Author:

Holly Keller, author-artist of That's Mine, Horace, has written more than twenty books and illustrated as many written by other people. Among the most popular of her picture books are two previous books about Horace, Horace and Brave Horace, and several books about the feisty pig Geraldine. She is the mother of two grown children and lives with her pediatrician husband in Connecticut.

In Her Own Words...

"Although I didn't realize that I was launching a wonderful career that would develop many years later, I wrote my first book for children when I was a senior at Hunter High School in New York City. Accepting the offer of my Latin teacher for me to do an extra translation to improve my grade, I produced a fully illustrated dummy of Little Red Riding Hood-in Latin, and set in the appropriate period of history. I also didn't know that it would be a long time before my artistic and intellectual interests would work together side by side quite so neatly again.

"I went to Sarah Lawrence College planning to study art, and ended up with a concentration in American history. I earned a Master's degree in history at Columbia University but never gave up my longing to draw and paint. Some years later I took a class in printmaking at Manhattanville College, and it was there that everything started to come together. I was working on a series of etchings illustrating a tale by Rudyard Kipling, and my very wise teacher, John Ross, suggested children's books.

"By then I was the mother of two small children and lived with my pediatrician husband in a rural town in Connecticut. I used whatever quiet hours I could find to put together a portfolio, and what little energy remained to take a course in illustration at the Parsons School of Design. I arrived at Greenwillow in 1981 with a pile of drawings for stories that existed somewhere in my head. Susan Hirschman pulled one out and told me to go home and write the story-in a week, no less! Well, somehow I did it, and the sense of unity I had felt back in Latin class was mine again.

"Since that first book, which was called Cromwell's Glasses, there have been many, many stories. Some come from my own childhood (frequently changed just enough to make them turn out more to my liking!), some come from the experiences of my children, and, more recently, some have come from the places to which I have traveled.

"In all the years that I have been writing and illustrating children's books, it has never felt like work. Each new book brings me to a place I have never been before, and I am always excited and happy to be there."

From School Library Journal:

PreSchool-Grade 1-Young children will identify with this gentle, unassuming story of a bear who longs to be bigger. Not only can't Jacob do certain things, such as see himself in the mirror, but it is also difficult and frustrating for him to keep up with his older brother and sister. He tries eating all of his vegetables and drinking his milk but he still can't speed up the growth process. Finally, spring arrives. Upon discovering that he can now see in the mirror, he bounds outside to check his height against the big elm tree where Papa had previously made a mark. The new mark is indeed higher. The text has great pacing and a careful set up of ideas that allows readers access into the cub's emotional turmoil. The book also gives a sense of the time continuum. Jacob achieves his immediate goal but finds that there's still much growing to do. The illustrations, done in pen and ink and watercolor, make this book immediately inviting. The bear family looks softly human and thoroughly huggable. Keller's precision and the clarity of her art create a believable and sweetly friendly world.
Martha Topol, Traverse Area District Library, Traverse City, MI
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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