For the pri­ma­ry crowd, espe­cial­ly those feel­ing daunt­ed by the big world, here is an empow­er­ing, charm­ing tale that high­lights, of all things, syn­a­gogue archi­tec­tur­al fea­tures. With a twist on the lit­tle engine’s ​“I knew I could,” the lit­tle tree holds fast to ​“I wish I could” and he does! Rhyming cou­plets and mobile art advance the nice­ly paced, straight-for­ward plot. The lit­tle tree, bare­ly more than a sapling, is over­whelmed by the big trees around it whose height makes sun­ny days dark and whose teas­ing makes it blue. A strong wind parts the big branch­es to reveal a vil­lage and its bustling peo­ple, some of whom are clear­ing land for a syn­a­gogue. Each of the big trees, the cedar, oak, and pine, brag about what a good Ark, bima or sanc­tu­ary wall they will make. The sad lit­tle tree pines to make a con­tri­bu­tion while the oth­ers bul­ly it, mock­ing it as too use­less even for a win­dow frame, a door knob or a floor plank. What is a lit­tle tree to do? Read­ers will relate, con­nect and feel sad until a stun­ning­ly sweet and sur­pris­ing end­ing: a per­cep­tive lum­ber­jack sees this wood as per­fect for the rollers for the Torah scroll. These rollers are also known as atzei hay­im, the trees of life. What a three-han­ky end­ing! The moral thrust of the sto­ry, that no one thing is too small or too weak to con­tribute because every­one, every­thing is spe­cial in their own unique way, is pre­sent­ed with heart. Envi­ron­men­tal­ists may decry the cut­ting of trees, but this is a fact of life and wood serves a valu­able pur­pose. The verse is not as good as the plot, some­times stum­bling in awk­ward meter, oth­er times in forced rhyme. This is a carp for adult read­ers; chil­dren will glide through these weak spots to the end full of tears, smiles and hope ful­filled. The illus­tra­tions are excel­lent, dark where they need to be, sup­port­ing the text and high­light­ing char­ac­ter pri­or­i­ties. The human fig­ures are real­is­tic and appeal­ing. The trees are espe­cial­ly well done, giv­en faces that con­vey char­ac­ter and most impor­tant­ly, the vary­ing emo­tions. Rec­om­mend­ed for young read­ers ages 5 to 8.