Tree Table Book is a new middle grade release from author Lois Lowry and it packs a punch like only her books can do. It tells the story of eleven year old Sophie Henry Winslow and her best friend and neighbor eighty-eight Sophia Gershowitz. These two characters have a close friendship even with their obvious age difference. It is such a well crafted friendship that is filled with heart.
Younger Sophie learns that older Sophie’s son is coming into town and having her evaluated for possible dementia. If it turns out that she does have dementia, she will be moved into an assisted living center closer to where her son lives. Sophia Henry Winslow cannot lose her best friend and quickly gets to work trying to find another solution. She begins testing Sophie using part of a mental ability to test where she gives her three words and has to try to recall them later in their conversation. At first, Sophie struggles remembering all the words so the words are chosen are words that she should be able to relate to in some way. This reveals a whole new side to her that she has never spoken about.
Younger Sophie is the narrator of our story and it broke my heart as she is forced to face some hard realities in life. These realities include what happened to her best friend when she was younger; and what is happening to her now that she is older. As she is young, she still has the innocent logic that she can fix whatever problem is put in front of her, and through this experience with her older best friend, she realizes that is not always the case. Lois Lowry has this way of creating her younger characters to be believable and to be able to take you on a journey.
Tree Table Book does such a good job at creating a tense environment in regards to the testing of someone’s memory. It was heart wrenching but realistic. Ultimately, the reality of our future is that there are going to be more and more people with memory issues. This story is a wonderful introduction to the topic of memory loss and the strengths and difficulties that come along with it.
Rating: 4 Stars
**I received this book for free from Publisher in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.**
welcome to the zoo! 