{"id":43603,"date":"2018-03-20T11:02:22","date_gmt":"2018-03-20T15:02:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/?p=43603"},"modified":"2018-03-20T11:24:14","modified_gmt":"2018-03-20T15:24:14","slug":"better-tree-fort-jessica-scott-kerrin-illustrated-qin-leng-shelf-awareness","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/better-tree-fort-jessica-scott-kerrin-illustrated-qin-leng-shelf-awareness\/","title":{"rendered":"The Better Tree Fort by Jessica Scott Kerrin, illustrated by Qin Leng [in Shelf Awareness]"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"*STARRED REVIEW<\/strong>
\nIn Russell’s new backyard stands a giant maple tree with “great big limbs and a trunk so wide, even Russell’s dad could not wrap his arms around it.” When Russell deems it ideal for a new fort, his dad initially hesitates: “‘I don’t know much about building.'” Russell assures him, “‘I’ll draw you a plan.'” After extensive measuring and re-measuring and four trips to the lumber store, the fort takes shape. Despite the lack of a balcony, quick-escape slide, or star-viewing skylight from the original plan, Russell deems his new fort “perfect.”<\/p>\n

\n

After a father\/son slumberfest in their hardwood hideaway, Russell notices a construction crew working three backyards over. Their efforts eventually produce a “bigger,” “straighter,” turreted tree castle, from which a boy named Warren invites Russell up his spiral staircase. Russell is “astonished” with the interior \u2013 bunk beds, electric lights, apple juice. Since the fort has “everything,” Russell asks about a kitchen sink to rinse his used glass. Warren scoffs in reply, then becomes concerned, realizing another, “better tree fort” might be out there somewhere. Russell returns home with a priceless revelation to share with his dad \u2013 who’s just about ready for another adventure.<\/p>\n

Canadian author Jessica Scott Kerrin<\/a> (Lobster Chronicles series) makes her picture book debut with a resonating lesson on the importance of not<\/em> keeping up with the Joneses and the immeasurable value of presence over product. Artist Qin Leng<\/a> embellishes Kerrin’s thoughtful narrative with whimsical ink, watercolor, and pencil crayon illustrations that emphasize and celebrate the parent\/child partnership as collaborators and adventurers \u2013 especially their supportive companionship and wordless understanding. Together, artist and author affectingly construct The Better Tree Fort<\/em> that has little to do with its exterior, and everything to do with the love contained within.<\/p>\n

Discover: <\/strong>In the art of building The Better Tree Fort<\/em>, the most important materials may be the loving bonds that hold it together.<\/p>\n

Review<\/strong>: “Children & Young Adult,” Shelf Awareness<\/em>, March 20, 2018<\/a><\/p>\n

Readers<\/strong>: Children<\/p>\n

Published<\/strong>: 2018<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

*STARRED REVIEW In Russell’s new backyard stands a giant maple tree with “great big limbs and a trunk so wide, even Russell’s dad could not wrap his arms around it.” When Russell deems it ideal for a new fort, his dad initially hesitates: “‘I don’t…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":43564,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[274,9,62,6,60,6535],"tags":[7768,6608,10,189,7767,160,39,1097,6872],"class_list":["post-43603","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-canadian","category-canadian-asian-pacific-american","category-children-picture-books","category-fiction","category-nonethnic-specific","category-repost","tag-better-tree-fort","tag-bookdragon","tag-family","tag-father-son-relationship","tag-jessica-scott-kerrin","tag-kiddie-fun","tag-parent-child-relationship","tag-qin-leng","tag-shelf-awareness"],"yoast_head":"\nThe Better Tree Fort by Jessica Scott Kerrin, illustrated by Qin Leng [in Shelf Awareness] - BookDragon<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/better-tree-fort-jessica-scott-kerrin-illustrated-qin-leng-shelf-awareness\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Better Tree Fort by Jessica Scott Kerrin, illustrated by Qin Leng [in Shelf Awareness] - BookDragon\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"*STARRED REVIEW In Russell’s new backyard stands a giant maple tree with “great big limbs and a trunk so wide, even Russell’s dad could not wrap his arms around it.” When Russell deems it ideal for a new fort, his dad initially hesitates: “‘I don’t...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/better-tree-fort-jessica-scott-kerrin-illustrated-qin-leng-shelf-awareness\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"BookDragon\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2018-03-20T15:02:22+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2018-03-20T15:24:14+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/10\/2018\/02\/Better-Tree-Fort-by-Jessica-Scott-Kerrin-on-BookDragon.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"624\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"849\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@SmithsonianAPA\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"The Better Tree Fort by Jessica Scott Kerrin, illustrated by Qin Leng [in Shelf Awareness] - BookDragon","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/better-tree-fort-jessica-scott-kerrin-illustrated-qin-leng-shelf-awareness\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"The Better Tree Fort by Jessica Scott Kerrin, illustrated by Qin Leng [in Shelf Awareness] - BookDragon","og_description":"*STARRED REVIEW In Russell’s new backyard stands a giant maple tree with “great big limbs and a trunk so wide, even Russell’s dad could not wrap his arms around it.” When Russell deems it ideal for a new fort, his dad initially hesitates: “‘I don’t...","og_url":"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/better-tree-fort-jessica-scott-kerrin-illustrated-qin-leng-shelf-awareness\/","og_site_name":"BookDragon","article_published_time":"2018-03-20T15:02:22+00:00","article_modified_time":"2018-03-20T15:24:14+00:00","og_image":[{"width":624,"height":849,"url":"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/10\/2018\/02\/Better-Tree-Fort-by-Jessica-Scott-Kerrin-on-BookDragon.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@SmithsonianAPA","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/better-tree-fort-jessica-scott-kerrin-illustrated-qin-leng-shelf-awareness\/","url":"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/better-tree-fort-jessica-scott-kerrin-illustrated-qin-leng-shelf-awareness\/","name":"The Better Tree Fort by Jessica Scott Kerrin, illustrated by Qin Leng [in Shelf Awareness] - BookDragon","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/#website"},"datePublished":"2018-03-20T15:02:22+00:00","dateModified":"2018-03-20T15:24:14+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/#\/schema\/person\/a00f6dcfcb279c75f3f992ad2919d51d"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/better-tree-fort-jessica-scott-kerrin-illustrated-qin-leng-shelf-awareness\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/better-tree-fort-jessica-scott-kerrin-illustrated-qin-leng-shelf-awareness\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/better-tree-fort-jessica-scott-kerrin-illustrated-qin-leng-shelf-awareness\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"The Better Tree Fort by Jessica Scott Kerrin, illustrated by Qin Leng [in Shelf Awareness]"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/#website","url":"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/","name":"BookDragon","description":"Books for the Diverse Reader","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/#\/schema\/person\/a00f6dcfcb279c75f3f992ad2919d51d","name":"Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/79b5f08575e8962bd00388cd126d374b?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/79b5f08575e8962bd00388cd126d374b?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/twitter.com\/@SmithsonianAPA"],"url":"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/author\/riemert\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43603"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=43603"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43603\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":43676,"href":"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43603\/revisions\/43676"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/43564"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=43603"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=43603"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=43603"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}