Chil­dren’s

The Tree in the Courtyard

Jeff Gottes­feld, illus­trat­ed by Peter McCarty
  • From the Publisher
May 3, 2016

The tree in the court­yard at 263 Prin­sen­gracht shad­ed a lit­tle girl as she played and laughed and wrote in a diary. When strangers invad­ed Ams­ter­dam and war­planes roared over­head, the tree watched the girl peek out of the cur­tained win­dow of the hid­ing place. It watched as she and her fam­i­ly were tak­en away, and when her father returned after the war, alone.

The tree died the sum­mer Anne Frank would have turned 81, but its seeds and saplings have been plant­ed around the world as a sym­bol of peace. This is the sto­ry of the tree and a girl who have passed into his­to­ry — and through it, still live on.

Vis­it­ing Scribe: Jeff Gottesfeld


Anne Frank’s Tree of Life

The Jig­saw Puz­zle of Writ­ing with­out an Outline

Discussion Questions