My Bent Tree
by Kathy Brodsky
March/2008
Reviewed by Susan M. Andrus
www.midwestbookreview.com

If you have ever wondered how to teach children about activism but lacked the resources that would help further your cause, My Bent Tree presents an opportunity to teach many lessons about diversity, activism, accepting differences, and working for justice.

In this brightly illustrated children's picture book, My Bent Tree leads the reader to appreciate differences in others and how helping them leads to rewards for herself. In this story written in rhyme, a child finds a tree in the woods that she notices is not perfect in every way, but she appreciates its shade and company. Soon, it becomes her favorite tree. Later, when the woods might be cut down to build a strip mall, the child, now a young adult, works with others to lobby against taking down all the trees, and a portion of the woods is set aside for a green space near the strip mall.

As a way to teach activism, ecology, and appreciation of those who are less than perfect, the book ends with two pages of discussion questions that guide teachers and parents in fostering inclusive attitudes toward others rather than discarding or disrespecting those who are less than perfect. Based on the author's own experiences of struggling to overcome the effects of polio and her subsequent work as a social worker, Brodsky's motivation in writing My Bent Tree was to show that "by reaching out and helping others, we also help ourselves."

Author Kathy Brodsky is a psychotherapist, life coach and poet living in New Hampshire. Her first book, Moments in Our Lives published in 2004 is a collection of vignettes told in verse about life's turning points from the birth of a baby through old age.

Illustrator Cameron Bennett has been illustrating children's books since 1977 when he was six years old. My Bent Tree is his first published children's book. He is also a portrait painter, and teaches Argentine Tango. To learn more about Cameron Bennett, go to www.cameronbennettart.com.

Susan M. Andrus
Reviewer