The Happiest Tree: A Story of Growing Up

Author/artist Hyeon-Ju Lee's The Happiest Tree is a wonderfully emotional story of life and growing up that will pull at the heartstrings of readers.

Over the years, the gingko tree that resides outside an apartment building has seen many things.

When it was ten, sounds of the Rose piano class filled the ground floor and whistled through its young branches.

At fourteen, a growth spurt year, it met Mr. Artist on the second floor whose muse was the tree itself.

As the years continue on, the tree encounters many people in the apartment building making memories. Some are happy, some are sad--they're all part of growing up. All part of who we will be in the future.

Hyeon-Ju Lee is a young author and illustrator from Korea. Her debut picture book, Mina’s White Canvas, received an Opera Prima Mention for the Bologna Ragazzi Award 2012, an honor given to new authors and illustrators for the ’’best designed book’’ worldwide.