Linden Tree Book

When eleven year old Katy Sue loses her mother, Edna, to meningitis, she and her family must adjust to life without her. The rural farm in the 1940’s provides a natural backdrop that is rhythmic and routine — and unforgiving, even when a family member dies. The house’s haunted emptiness is only filled when Aunt Katherine, Edna’s youngest sister, comes to the family’s aid, as does Jake, an ornithologist and long-time family friend. As Katy Sue, the youngest of the three children, watches Ingrid take on her mother’s domestic tasks and Ben help Papa on the farm, she struggles to define her place in the family and understand what the loss of her mother means for her now. With the guidance of her teacher Mrs. Breton, Katy Sue begins to contemplate the shape of her family and the farm through drawing, a process that allows her to accept her father’s soon-to-be wife, the farm life without her mother, and eventually, her own role within the family.

KLIATT

The linden tree sits on a hill on the Hanson farm in rural Iowa. When Katy Sue's mother dies after contracting meningitis, she is lovingly buried beneath its spreading branches. Katy Sue, the youngest of the Hanson children, tells this poignant, bittersweet story of living in the shadow of her mother's sudden death. Her Aunt Katherine, for whom she is named, comes to stay with them while they try to get back into the rhythms of rural farm life. Her older brother helps their father while older sister Ingrid takes on the domestic duties of the household. Katy Sue is torn between the incredible loss and the realization that life will never be as it was. Later, when Ingrid experiences her first of the "monthlies," it becomes obvious to Mr. Hanson that his girls will need a woman in their lives. Aunt Katherine returns to the family and settles into a relationship with the children, recognizing their need to be mothered while not wanting to take the mother's place. The novel chronicles the events of a year from Katy Sue's point of view. She is an objective narrator, sharing with the readers what it feels like to move beyond a traumatic loss without losing the memories of love. A gentle, life-affirming tale that deserves to be shared and discussed.