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    Tree Girl: A Novel
    Unavailable
    Tree Girl: A Novel
    Unavailable
    Tree Girl: A Novel
    Audiobook4 hours

    Tree Girl: A Novel

    Written by Ben Mikaelsen

    Narrated by Amber Sealey

    4/5

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    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

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    About this audiobook

    YALSA Amazing Audiobooks for Young Adults

    Based on a true story, this novel tells the heartwrenching story of a girl in the midst of civil war in Guatemala.

    In her remote Guatemalan village, 14-year-old Gabriela is known as Tree Girl for her habit of fleeing to the forest and climbing high to escape the world. When guerrilla warfare comes to her area, her life is changed forever. Over dangerous miles and months of hunger and thirst, Gabriela's search for her sister Alicia and for a safe haven becomes a search for self.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherPenguin Random House Audio
    Release dateJan 13, 2009
    ISBN9780739372647
    Author

    Ben Mikaelsen

    Ben Mikaelsen is the winner of the International Reading Association Award and the Western Writers of America Spur Award. His novels have been nominated for and won many state reader's choice awards. These novels include Red Midnight, Rescue Josh McGuire, Sparrow Hawk Red, Stranded, Countdown, Petey, and Tree Girl. Ben's articles and photos appear in numerous magazines around the world. Ben lives near Bozeman, Montana, with his 700-pound black bear, Buffy.

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    Reviews for Tree Girl

    4/5

    36 ratings3 reviews

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    • 5/5
      This historical fiction disturbs and inspires.
    • 5/5
      The narrator, Ms Amber, evokes raw emotion through her voice. Thanks Ben for this heart-wrenching eye opener
    • 4/5
      As explained in the author’s note, this book is based on a true story, although the protagonist’s name has been changed. Tree Girl tells the story of Gabriela Flores, a young girl who loves her family, going to school, and climbing trees to their highest branches. It is this last activity that christens her with the nickname “tree girl,” and it is also the one that saves her, repeatedly, when war breaks out shortly after her fifteenth birthday. Gabriela’s people, the Maya of Guatemala, are routinely massacred by the military without mercy. Climbing high into trees and hiding allows Gabriela to escape being murdered, but it also means she must remain idly by while watching horrific scenes take place below her. As such, this book is rather traumatic to read, and I find that the writing style does not help. There is nothing literary to the telling of this story, just the straightforward telling of tragic events without respite. There is also little character development or historical context, the latter of which I think is sorely missed as most readers will not even know when the events of this book are taking place without that information. Overall, I think this is an important story that needed to be told, but I wish that the telling had been better executed.