The Pennywhistle Tree - Hardcover

Grade 4-6-- Jonathan and the three other 11-year-old boys in their coastal Georgia neighborhood have been best friends always, playing and biking together, and sharing pleasant times in the low sprawling branches of a large live oak. While his friends are beginning to specialize in football, Jonathan is serious about music--piano, flute, and his old standby pennywhistle which, carefully cached in the tree, is always ready for a tune. Then along comes Sanders George, belligerent and aggressive, the eldest of a large poor family who move in down the street. The George children seem to be everywhere, intruding upon and disturbing the well-ordered neighborhood. Even Jonathan's parents have difficulty accepting this unacceptable family. But Jonathan's innate sensitivity to others' feelings keeps bumping up against his outrage at Sanders's behavior. He discovers that Sanders, too, has a gift for music and a need for friends. But hidden under layers of rough bluster is a stark secret--he cannot read. Just when Jonathan determines to risk losing his old friendships by reaching out to Sanders, the George family suddenly moves on. Jonathan and Sanders are each well-realized characters--typical school kids on the surface, but further revealed as individuals who do not fit a common mold. Smith meticulously reveals the changing levels of behavior and attitude in each character with a fine intertwining of action and reaction, misconception and perception. Thoughtful readers will find truths in this story worth pondering alone or discussing in a group. --Katharine Bruner, Brown Middle School, Harrison, TN
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc.

An author noted for her subtly perceptive stories about youngsters under stress (A Taste of Blackberries, 1973) recounts a bittersweet encounter between a gifted, well-loved young musician and a needy boy who lives for a brief time next door. When Sanders George and his family of six younger siblings move in, they jolt Jonathon Douglas, his parents, and his longtime friends out of a comfortable complacency. The little Georges swarm over the Douglases' yard, climb the tree where Jonathon's group hangs out, and look in windows; apparently they are also destructive of their toys, since they have none. Sanders gets off to a bad start by lobbing a brick at another boy's bike, first in a series of acrimonious exchanges. Jonathon is outraged- -the newcomers invade his space and threaten to destroy the concentration he treasures for his music. But, gradually, he begins to sense the humanity behind Sanders's facade: the new baby in Sanders's family is stillborn, a grief the Douglas family has also known; Sanders proves to have a true gift for music; he's obviously bright but can't read, and asks Jonathon for help. Then, just as tentative gestures could blossom into friendship, the Georges suddenly move away. This quiet story centers on its well-realized characters, especially Jonathon--who comes to understand the barriers (including a father who sells everything his children come to possess) that Sanders will have to overcome in order to realize his potential, and who gains a more mature appreciation of his own parents. Thoughtful and compelling. (Fiction. 10-14) -- Copyright ©1991, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.