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Tree Girl is one of T. A. Barron's shorter YA fantasy novels, set in the kind of carefully rendered forest that has been his signature throughout his career. The protagonist Anna is a 9-year-old girl who has been raised by an old man in a remote forest, with no memory of how she came to be there or of any family besides him. The book is the slow careful unfolding of what has happened to her and what she will need to do to understand herself.
Barron's prose is at its lyrical best in the forest sections, which is much of the book. The pace is patient. The middle-grade emotional register lands cleanly without sentimentality.
Four stars. Recommended to younger YA readers and to adults who want their middle-grade fantasy with serious lyrical attention.
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