June 15, 2023
"If you ever have a mulberry tree, you'll learn / there's nowhere sweeter to sit / than on branches, heavy with warm berries." Cycles and regeneration are significant themes in this tale that traces a child's love of jam and the nearby mulberry tree that produces the fruit for it. A repeating refrain ("If you ever have a mulberry tree...") gives the text a lilting, poetic quality, while loose and colorful illustrations evoke a warm, rural setting. The text is narrated in second person and addressed to a brown-skinned child who lives with a light-skinned father. The two make jam together, step by step, from adding beads and baubles to the tree (an attempt to keep birds away) to collecting berries that are shared (just a little) with those birds to gathering, crushing, and boiling them, which ultimately results in many jars of delicious jam, just right for sharing with brown-skinned Grandma and a diverse group of neighbors. When a storm knocks down the tree, the child grieves, but when spring comes, the young protagonist finds ways to celebrate at its stump with loved ones. So is this the end? An emphatic no! "If you ever have a mulberry tree, you'll gasp, / when suddenly silent, shiny leaves burst-- / From stems / to shoots / to branches." (This book was reviewed digitally.) A warm tale of grief, resilience, trees, and, of course, jam. (Picture book. 3-8)
COPYRIGHT(2023) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
June 12, 2023
In a picture book debut, Sumovich writes a second-person ode to a beloved mulberry tree that invites readers right in. Via warmly stroked spreads, Zhang (When Rubin Plays) paints the child narrator, portrayed with brown skin, perched in the tree’s branches: “If you ever have a mulberry tree,” the text begins, “you’ll learn/ there’s nowhere sweeter to sit/ than on branches heavy with warm berries.” Beginning with the same initial line, successive verses describe jam making, and jam jar counting, too, as the precious jars dwindle, “Gone to sticky Grandma’s table./ Gone to sweeten neighbors’ bread.” When a storm topples the tree (“Its thick trunk stretched across the lawn,/ broken and cracked and done”) the summer proves as “fruitless and dry as toast.” But the following spring reveals a miracle that might just extend to the titular “one more jar.” Knowledge that comes with the caretaking and harvesting of trees, a seasonal scale, and affectionate images of an interracial family who share joy and loss together all flavor this personal-feeling tale. Ages 4–8. Agent (for author and illustrator): Hannah Mann, Writers House.
July 1, 2023
Preschool-Grade 3 Sitting in her family's mulberry tree, a girl muses that "there's nowhere sweeter to sit / than on branches, heavy with warm berries." Shaking those branches, she watches the fruit fall onto the old sheet below. She hauls the fruit to the kitchen, where her father boils the canning jars and makes the berries into jam. One night, a fierce storm fells the tree, leaving only its stump in the ground. The girl cries. Family and friends gather, also missing the tree. Seasons pass, but one spring, after the snow melts, the girl discovers shoots with green leaves growing from the stump. She spreads the joyful news, then returns to wait patiently for "one more jar of jam." Beginning with "If you ever have a mulberry tree...," the story draws viewers into the young narrator's experiences and emotions with its plainspoken, graceful free verse. The illustrations, created with ink, watercolor, and gouache paints, have a sweeping sense of motion, a colorful palette, and a folk-art look that suits the rural setting. A quiet, heartfelt picture book.
COPYRIGHT(2023) Booklist, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
November 1, 2023
PreS-Gr 2-Evoking sweet, simple pleasures in life, Sumovich pens a celebration of growth, family, and friends. A much-loved tree provides a place to sit, shelter, and food for birds, and jam-lots of jam. The unnamed child addresses readers through all the seasons in the life of a family and the tree, even the storm that blows the tree over. Still, the rings on the trunk can be counted to mark a birthday or two. The child misses the experiences that the tree provided throughout its life, but can something new grow from the loss? The story is told in comforting prose as well as through Zhang's detailed and flowing illustrations. Full-bleed pictures coupled with detail-filled vignettes pull readers into the visuals, which support and deepen the story. VERDICT A worthy purchase with an eye-catching cover, this is sure to intrigue young and old alike. Sadly, a good jam recipe is not included.-Cassie Veselovsky
Copyright 2023 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.
November 1, 2023
A close-knit family living in a small blue house treasures the sprawling mulberry tree that grows in their yard. They drape it with "sparkling baubles and beads" to keep the birds away from the delicious fruits, which they harvest to make jam. Repeatedly, Sumovich sets up the conditional: "If you ever have a mulberry tree," marking off the joys of living near one -- until the tone shifts. The young protagonist lies awake as a storm rages, wondering "if the berries will hang on for one more jar of jam." But winds topple the tree. The family members go through the subsequent seasons without their beloved tree, yet they still gather to celebrate it. In a spread that depicts the protagonist hugging her grandmother, the text poignantly notes: "If you ever have a mulberry tree, you might love it now more than ever. Now that you know it's enough just to grow." With sketchy lines and highly textured watercolor washes, Zhang captures the affection family members have for one another and the love they have for the outdoors; her opening depictions of the mulberry tree as it blooms are particularly vivid. This story of loss ends on an optimistic note when "silent, shiny leaves" burst forth from the trunk that remains after the storm. The family celebrates, shouting and dancing and waiting "for one more jar of jam." Julie Danielson
(Copyright 2023 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)