• Age: 9 to 11
• Grade: 4 to 7

It's 1935, and Ellen and her mother must leave their dried up Saskatchewan farm to board with Aunt Gladys in Toronto. Intimidated by her new surroundings, Ellen chooses to hide in the branches of the large leafy tree outside her window and watch their neighborhood children playing, rather than joining in their games. But when Ellen overhears a plan to evict the family next door from their home, she must overcome her fears and warn Charlene, the oldest girl in the family. Together, the girls foil their greedy building manager's plot and "hatch" a plan to sell eggs in order to pay the family's mounting back rent.

Celia Barker Lottridge is a writer and storyteller who has written several highly acclaimed children's books, including Ticket to Curlew (winner of the Canadian Library Association Book of the Year for Children Award and the Geoffrey Bilson Historical Fiction Award), Berta: A Remarkable Dog (nominated for the Texas Bluebonnet Award, Horn Book starred review) and Stories from the Life of Jesus (Publishers Weekly starred review). She wrote Home Is Beyond the Mountains after hearing her mother's stories about growing up in Persia and after reading letter's written by Celia's aunt, Susan Shedd. Born in Iowa and raised in the United States, Celia now lives in Toronto.

Celia Lottridge's profile page

The Listening Tree

On the Prairies, drought has ruined crops for four consecutive years. Ellen’s father leaves their Saskatchewan farm to seek work while Ellen and her mother move to Aunt Gladys’s boarding house in the Toronto Annex. The dramatic change in lifestyle overwhelms Ellen. Too diffident to play with the children next door she listens to them from her refuge in a large tree outside her bedroom. It is from this “Listening Tree” that Ellen overhears strangers plotting to evict her neighbours. Jolted into action, she saves the situation, simultaneously discovering her place in this new world.

Celia Barker Lottridge, storyteller and award-winning children’s author depicts the feelings of a nine-year-old child uprooted from familiar surroundings and thrust into a new world where loving adults are preoccupied with the practicalities of survival. Ellen is an empathetic character who draws upon inner resources when loneliness engulfs her and demonstrates courage and ingenuity when needed. The reader is given a glimpse, through Ellen’s eyes, of the effect of the Great Depression on both rural and urban Canada, making the era come alive. While the essence of Toronto in that time period is not fully evoked, the hardships of the time, including the resourceful frugality required, will intrigue young readers as children raise chickens, babysit and sell scrap metal to help their families get by.

This easy-to-read early novel with its realistic heroine, direct language and well-paced plot will bring new meaning to the word “history” for young readers.

The Listening Tree

When Ellen moves to Toronto from Saskatchewan in 1935, she watches the neighbourhood children playing from high up in her tree — so she doesn’t have to join in their games. One evening, she overhears a plan to evict the family living next door and realizes she must overcome her fears to help her neighbours.