Review: The Abba Tree
The Abba Tree by Devora Busheri, illustrated by Gal Shkedi Category: Picture Books Reviewer: Freidele Galya Soban Biniashvili Buy at Bookshop.org The Abba Tree opens with a passage from the Babylonian Talmud, in which Honi sees a man planting a carob tree and asks him how long it will take for the tree to bear fruit. When he replies "seventy years," Honi asks if he will live seventy more years to eat this fruit. The man says, “I found a world full of carob trees. Just as my ancestors planted trees for me, I too am planting for my descendants.” The story then begins with Hannah searching for a tree to climb. Her father, who is resting under a young carob tree, suggests she plant one, as it is soon to be Tu B’Shevat. But Hannah wants “to climb a tree now.” And so she goes searching for a tree to climb, trying unsuccessfully with three other types of trees. She returns to her father who then suggests she plant an Abba Tree, which she does by “planting” her father into the gr...