Toby Alone anticipated

My wife Alice does an absolutely incredible job of researching and finding great books for our kids to read or listen to on tape. Our kids, in turn, do an incredible job of actually reading and listening to them. I stand in awe of all of them (as a kid the only things I read were biographies of basketball players and enough of the Cliff Notes to get me through tests), and wonder what I ever did to deserve them. As the movie Von Trapps sang sappily but beautifully, somewhere in my youth or childhood I must have done something good.

My interest was piqued when Alice came home from the library today with a book whose jacket was covered with oak leaves. The book is called Toby Alone, written by Timothee de Fombelle. Here's the jacket cover synopsis:

Toby Lolness may be just one and a half millimeters tall, but he’s the most wanted person in his world — the world of the great oak Tree. Toby’s father has made a groundbreaking discovery: the Tree itself is alive, lowing with vital energy, and there may even be a world beyond it. Greedy developers itch to exploit this forbidden knowledge, risking permanent damage to their natural world. But Toby’s father has refused to reveal his findings, causing the family to be exiled to the lower branches. Only Toby has managed to escape — but for how long? And how can he bear to leave his parents to their terrible fate?

... well as long as it's not allegorical at all :)

How cool would it be for your whole "world" to be an individual oak tree? I can't wait to read it, but around here you have to get in line. Or wait for the Cliff Notes version to come out! Has anyone read it? I'll review it soon.