This was okay - a bit of a disappointment next to "The Day I Became A Bird," which I loved. I got the message and liked the Jeffers-esque illustrations. But the language was a bit too spare, in a way that I feel didn't quite work with the theme. It painted a grim and depressing picture of city life, and while I'm all for environmentalism and green urban spaces, working in a community of city-bred children makes me wary of promoting the idea that where they live is inherently bad and always doomed to destruction. Overall, this book was okay but even I felt my interest waning so I don't know that it would particularly capture the imagination of children.

The illustrations in this book are really great. The story is nice, as well, but my biggest problem with it is that it ends very abruptly. The author could've added another page or two and really rounded the story out nicely. Still very nice, though!

I'm going to break this into three parts (Art, Story, Impression), to better explain my reasoning here. First, my overall rating for this book is a 3.5.

Story
The Last Tree is the story of two little boys who live in the city surrounded by ugly gray buildings all day. One day, the boys find a small sapling. When they learn that the area where the tree grows will soon be demolished, they set out to replant the tree where it can survive.

Art
The art of The Last Tree is very impressionistic. The palette tends towards more muted colors like grey and cool blues unless speaking about nature. The bright greens really pop off the pages and adds to the point of the story.

My Impression
I liked this book. It's story is solid, well written, and evenly paced. I think the style of art and the use of color really adds to the message overall. I would recommend it for purchasing at a library, but nothing really wows me about the story. Though overall the pacing is good, the very end sort of falls apart. However, I do think this would be a good story time book for spring or Earth Day events.