Starred Review for Publishers Weekly (Thu Apr 28 00:00:00 CDT 2022)

In her heartfelt and humorous novel, Bauer (<EMPHASIS TYPE=""ITALIC"">Hope Was Here) leaves teenage girl protagonists in favor of a middle-grade boy—as she did also in <EMPHASIS TYPE=""ITALIC"">Sticks(1996). But her fans won't be disappointed. At first, 12-year-old Tree, "six feet, three and a half inches and growing," only literally "stands tall." At school, Coach Glummer expects him to lead the basketball team (though he's not very athletic) and teachers expect him to act older than his age. On the home front—which shifts weekly due to his parents' recent divorce and joint custody arrangement—Tree is the glue of his family. He helps care for his Vietnam vet grandfather (who recently had a leg amputated) while worrying about his aging dog, Bradley, his two college-student brothers and his parents. Bolstered by his budding friendship with the outspoken new girl at school, Sophie, and by Grandpa, Tree finds an inner strength that helps him deal with just about anything—including a natural disaster. Bauer once again creates a clan of believable characters scrambling to make the best of their particular brand of dysfunction. Her swiftly paced story artfully blends poignant and outright funny moments, resulting in a triumphant tale that will resonate with many young readers. Ages 10-up. <EMPHASIS TYPE=""ITALIC"">(Aug.)

ALA Booklist (Sun Sep 01 00:00:00 CDT 2002)

All is not fair in love and war, and 12-year-old Tree knows it. Between grappling with his parents' divorce and helping his beloved Vietnam veteran grandpa with lingering leg injuries, Tree has his hands full. To complicate matters further, he is the tallest seventh grader in the history of his school. As his grandfather recalls fighting in a war that wasn't our war, Tree is caught in the middle of his parents' incomprehensible standoff. The novel's funnier moments erupt around Tree's mother, who has a new place, a belligerent new terrier, a gurgling Serenity Fountain, and a sudden desire to talk about feelings. She contrasts deliciously with her estranged husband and his more comfortably chaotic household. Much of this is theme-heavy, but plot lines about a girl named Sophie, off-to-college older brothers, and the family's aging dog fail to weigh down the story of Tree's struggle to grow from sapling to mighty oak.

Horn Book

Six-foot, three-and-a-half-inch tall Tree adjusts to his parents' divorce, gets to know outspoken eighth-grader Sophie, and helps his grandfather recover from the amputation of his leg--a delayed consequence of being wounded in Vietnam. Bauer's choppy prose matches the fragmentary quality of the plot, which jumps from event to event but is held together by strong characterizations.

Kirkus Reviews

Tree is the tallest seventh-grade boy ever to attend Eleanor Roosevelt Middle School. <p>Tree is the tallest seventh-grade boy ever to attend Eleanor Roosevelt Middle School. At six feet, three and a half inches, Tree knows "tallness is packed with great expectations." He knows "people expect trees to be strong and steady." But being a tree isn't easy. Not when your parents have divorced, leaving you feeling like "a sci-fi movie where someone is there one minute, gone the next. Poof." Or when your beloved grandpa has his right leg removed below the knee and suffers phantom pains in the empty place. Or when you know that Grandpa is still haunted by memories of friends lost in the Vietnam War--a different kind of phantom pain. This is a story of loss and the empty places left behind, and how Tree grows into his name, lives up to expectations, and becomes a hero. From Grandpa, he learns that empty places "don't get filled in right away. You've got to look at them straight on, see what's still standing. Concentrate on what you've got as much as you can." In trees, war, laser pens, even the positive and negative ends of batteries, Bauer (<i>Hope Was Here</i>, 2000, etc.) is a master at finding inspiration and purpose in everyday life. She writes about serious themes with humor, grace, and wisdom. If the story is unabashedly inspirational, maybe that's something young readers will appreciate these days--an eloquent story of ordinary heroes when "the shock of loss was everywhere." <i>(Fiction. 10+)</i></p>

School Library Journal (Thu Aug 01 00:00:00 CDT 2002)

Gr 6-9-Tree is the tallest 12-year-old anyone in his town has ever known. However, his height and nickname are just two of his worries. His parents have recently divorced and his grandfather has just had part of his leg amputated from an old Vietnam War injury. Tree splits his time between his Mom's new house and his old home with his father and grandfather, and tries to come to grips with his new, divided life. Unlike his two older brothers, he has no natural athletic ability, even though everyone expects that a boy his size could get the ball in the hoop. Bauer utilizes Tree's relationships to help him find his voice and to teach him that being a "tree" may have benefits. The constant encouraging words from his grandfather help him see that while life is not always fair, it is best to give it your all. In the end, a disastrous flood that almost destroys his father's house as well as many others rallies the town, and the story ends with a realistic scene of courage and bravery. The depictions of Tree and his colorful family are candid and endearing, and much of the writing is leavened with the author's special brand of humor, albeit bittersweet in this case. The story moves fluidly as the author reminds readers of the small towns that stand tall and of the veterans that fought in a war that not even they understood.-Delia Fritz, Mercersburg Academy, PA Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information.