A review by skorchumova
The Belonging Tree by Maryann Cocca-Leffler

1.0

Entirely disappointing. The art is sweet and the title and cover really drew me in, but the story is terrible and at this point should be completely outdated but apparently isn’t. This book is about a family of squirrels who live in an oak tree, and the story is that other animals move in and start living in the oak tree and the family of squirrels are not happy about it. Every two pages the dad says, “There goes the neighborhood!” I couldn’t believe that a current-day book for children would so blatantly give animals the worst of human traits and completely normalize them. This is the attitude and language of racism and all kinds of discrimination. To make things worse, at the end, the squirrel family move out because they decide the tree isn’t for them anymore now that so many “other” animals are living there, but the other animals welcome them and throw a party for them. So the moral of the story is that it isn’t on the squirrels to figure out how to accept other animals, but that it’s on those who are “different” to celebrate and make those who ostracized them feel welcome and comfortable. No, thank you. I refuse to teach my child that he can go around being close-minded and it’s everyone else’s responsibility to make him feel more comfortable and accepted.