The Arborist

When eleven-year-old Charlie Roebecker befriends Chief Goodyear, a homeless evacuee from Hurricane Katrina, he is not expecting any miracles. As he says, "You can do only small things to fix a big problem." Chief Goodyear is an arborist--a fixer of trees. Along with the stray dog he has brought from the flooded city, he leaves an overcrowded relief shelter in search of work and "space to breath." His arrival starts Charlie on a mission to help the stranger get a new start. As Christmas nears, Charlie's family make their annual trip to the tree lot where they choose the perfect tree. Charlie brings home a scrawny little pine with a crooked trunk and no top--The Puny--which he plans to decorate and give to the Chief. Charlie's sister calls it "a sick midget tree puked from the forest." His best friend says it's "creepy looking." But Charlie knows better. He has the imagination to see what the little tree might become. And in the hands of an arborist--who knows what could happen