Ellie Mathews
When eleven year old Katy Sue loses her mother, Edna,Â to meningitis, she and her family must adjust to life without her. The rural farm in the 1940â€™s provides a natural backdrop that is rhythmic and routine â€” and unforgiving, even when a family member dies. The houseâ€™s haunted emptiness is only filled when Aunt Katherine, Ednaâ€™s youngest sister, comes to the familyâ€™s aid, as does Jake, an ornithologist and long-time family friend. As Katy Sue, the youngest of the three children, watches Ingrid take on her motherâ€™s domestic tasks and Ben help Papa on the farm, she 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 fatherâ€™s soon-to-be wife, the farm life without her mother, and eventually, her own role within the family.
Historical,Historical Fiction,Historical,Fiction,Childrens
The Linden Tree