About this title: No one had ever seen big Peter before, and no one ever saw him again, and no one ever saw him at all but small Peter who lived in dingy, squalid old Shantytown. Yet it was big Peter's gift to small Peter -- a shiny toy spade with a red handle, and a small green tree lighted with tiny candles -- that caused Shantytown people to have hope again. And with new hope the grass grew, and there were gardens, and the junk heaps were cleaned up and the sagging doors were put back on their hinges. This is a modern miracle, through which sad and beaten houses became white and neat and shining, and ...
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Note: This is a general synopsis. Each listing is described below.
Description: Fair. B000WO17L0 Just barely acceptable, book is well loved, read and used. Contents complete with several dogears. Former library with spine repaired with green tape and white lettering. Needs repaired again. Library sleeves removed, name written on flyleaf and stamp on title page. Cover VERY worn, especially edges and corners. read more
Edition: Large Print
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: The Viking Press
Date Published: 1959
Description: Seredy, Kate. Fair/No Jacket. This hardcover is a sixth printing. No dustjacket. Tears on spine cover. Binding is tight. Some minor water damage. Cover has water cup mark. This is an ex-library book with the usual thus markings. 102 pages. Good tight binding. read more
Edition: Reprint.
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Viking, New York
Date Published: 1954
Description: Kate Seredy. Good. No dust jacket. Corners & part of spine frayed. Some small stains on boards. Very small scribble on front end paper & scribbles on side edge, but text is clean & bright with no writing/underlining/names/marks. Immaculate illustrations. No D/J but... 102 p. Includes illustrations. Beige boards with green Christmas tree on front cover & title in green on spine. No D/J but one flap of D/J in front of book, giving description. Numerous full page sepia illustrations, plus smaller ... read more
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: The Viking Press
Date Published: 1954
Description: Acceptable. 1954-Fair-This ex lib hard bound book has tight pages, b/w illustrations, illustrated title page, reading copy only, taped spine-green lib tape used, heavily worn edges/corners, few smudges, soiled cover, and usual lib markings. -Fifth Printing-Ex-Library Illustrated by Kate Seredy Site allows up to 30 calendar days for standard U.S. shipping-please take this into account when choosing a shipping method. Thank you! read more
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: The Viking Press
Date Published: 1967
Description: Hardback. No Dustjacket. Reading Copy Only. Ex-Library with the usual faults, card pocket, ink stamps, etc. Tight sound copy with average wear. read more
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Viking Books
Date Published: 1941
ISBN-13:9780670727735ISBN:0670727733
Description: Good in fair dust jacket. Sewn binding. Cloth over boards. With dust jacket. Audience: Children/juvenile. Second Printing in slightly bowed boards, old gift inscription in front. DJ intact but with edgewear, chipping. Great illustrations. read more
Edition: Ninth
Binding: Cloth
Publisher: Viking Press, New York
Date Published: 1967
Description: Very Good in Very Good jacket. Juvenile Ex-library. Page 8-9 have had a tape repair, with ugly tape. Some edgewear. Looks great in new mylar. Clean, bright and tight. read more
Edition: 10th Printing
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: The Viking Press, New York
Date Published: 1970
ISBN-13:9780670727735ISBN:0670727733
Description: Seredy. Very Good. EX-LIBRARY. EXPECTED MARKINGS AND ATTACHMENTS. PICTORIAL CLOTH COVER. INTERIOR PAGES STAMPED "DISCARD" AND HAVE SLIGHT STAINING WITH LIBRARY STAMPS MARKED OUT. read more
Edition: First Edition
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Viking, New York
Date Published: 1941
Description: Very Good-in Good dust jacket. Owner's name. Jacket has some edgewear including two 1/2" tears and a small hole in the spine of the jacket.; Large 8vo 9"-10" tall; 102 pages. read more
Edition: First Edition; First Printing
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Viking Press, N Y
Date Published: 1941
Description: Illustrated by Seredy, Kate. Very Good in Very Good dust jacket; 1941. First edition, first printing. Hardbound in tan cloth. Book very good, dust jacket very good. Previous owner gift note in front, no other marks, a chapter book, beautiful full page half-tone paintings for... 8vo-over 7¾"-9¾" tall. read more
"This book was read to me when I was five years old and it haunted me. Recently I was reminded of A Tree for Peter as I was reading another book, and I felt the need to find a copy and reread it.
It's not as dark and bleak as I remember. But the illustrations (which are drawn in detail in pencil, I believe) are somewhat dark, people's faces are ragged and overwrought. And it is yet another tale (for children) where many of the adults are hapless and lost, and a child protagonist must will himself to do what adults around him cannot do, survive. I think it's an odd theme we choose to share with children; one that must cause plenty of kids anxiety. It certainly did with me.
Anyway, it is a beautifully presented book and I'm glad I read it, if only as a way to exorcise early childhood angst."
"We have had this book on the shelf forever and it was the swine flu that finally allowed us to read it aloud. It is a very sweet Christmas story. The edition we read has gorgeous pictures which were delightful. The book is hard to find but a blessing for a family library."
"My Grandma Waller, a retired school teacher at the time, checked this book out of the library for me when I was about 10 years old and raved about how wonderful it was and how her fifth- and sixth-grade students used to love it. She was right--and, in my opinion, the book is equally pleasing to children and adults. Rarely have I read a book that is so touching and rewarding while at the same time a beautiful testament to the restorative power of gardens in the lives of troubled children, poverty-stricken adults, and everyone else. Unfortunately, A Tree for Peter, first published in 1941, seemed to disappear off of library and bookstore shelves for decades, and it was only in the past few years that it has reappeared in print, reasonably priced. The story revolves around Shantytown, a particularly run-down and oppressed slum of an unnamed U.S. city, where five-year-old Peter lives in the most awful poverty with his mother, an overworked washer woman who must leave him alone six days out of the week. Peter is lame from the accident that killed his father and added up the medical bills that now account for their ongoing debt and poverty. Peter's only acquaintance aside from his mother is a kindly policeman, Patrolman John Patrick O'Flannigan, who unintentially intimidates him. He is afraid of the big boys in the neighborhood and the stray dog who hangs about. One day, a stranger in the form of a old tramp, who is also named Peter (or King Peter as small Peter calls him) appears and transforms Peter's life with little more than kindness and the gift of a small toy shovel. Through the miracle of digging and planting, Peter's life begins to change. Officer Pat, Pal the dog, even the neighborhood kids become his friends as he and his mother respond to the joy of digging, planting and watching the wonder of flowers coming into bloom. "Sometimes Pat took the little spade into his big mitts of hands and carefully, so as not to break the tiny tool, dug up a little spot. Then one day he just stood gazing at the freshly turned ground. Hs eyes lighted up with a sudden thought ad he said: 'you know what Peanut? You and I will start us a little garden. . . A wee patch of grass with bulbs planted on the edges . . . Och, now, it is the end of August and we could see the green before the snow falls . . . ' Later, Peter's work-worn mother observes, "Those seeds you brought, Pat . . . they were not only seeds of grass. They musut have been seeds of loveliness and . . . contentment, too . . .and seeds of hope." "The Laddie started it," said Pat simply, "with his little red spade." The crowning joy of the story is King Peter's last miracle--to bring a Christmas tree the next December. Just as King Peter predicts, the people who see the small pine tree are motivated more than ever to clean up Shantytown and make the houses clean and white. When spring comes again, the people, "swept into Shantytown together and went to work. . . . Visions of a real garden that would fill the yard with green and blooming things began to grow in their hearts. They saw themselves and the ones they loved in the dream garden and they smiled at what they saw. . . And now, all their secret dreams were coming out into the sunshine. They planned, argued, walking back and forth, each adding a fragment to the other's dream. . . . to all these people whose hears dreamed a dream and whose hands made it come true."
Years later, the adult Peter Marsh, now a successful builder, looks out over the beautiful area that once was Shantytown. He holds a small, worn, toy shovel in his hands. "This and the tree-that tall, beautiful pine-are all I have to prove that King Peter was not a dream . . . ""
"First off, I have to say that if you have not seen Kate Seredy's art, you should try to do that. Find a copy of The Chestry Oak, or more especially The Tenement Tree or A Tree for Peter at your library and even if you don't read the book, look at the pictures. They are a real treat! Beautiful, beautiful black and white drawings that make people and creatures come to life.
Next, this book was a great read. I think I enjoyed this more having just read "Gizelle, Save the Children." Both speak deeply of hope which cannot be squelched. Even in terrible conditions, there is always hope and sometimes unlikely heroes that make that hope shine through.
I find Kate Seredy's works to be deeply spiritual as well and love that layer of her work.
Find this book and read how little lame Peter, living in Shantytown finds some wonderful friends who help him overcome his fears and guide him to be who he was meant to be!
Reminds me of this poem recently pointed out on Michelle's blog:
HOPE is the thing with feathers That perches in the soul, And sings the tune without the words, And never stops at all,
And sweetest in the gale is heard; 5 And sore must be the storm That could abash the little bird That kept so many warm.
I 've heard it in the chillest land, And on the strangest sea; 10 Yet, never, in extremity, It asked a crumb of me.
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