Book Descriptions
for Toby Alone by Timothée de Fombelle and François Place
From The United States Board on Books for Young People (USBBY)
Toby Lolness used to live happily and peacefully with his mother and father, a brilliant scientist. But Professor Lolness’s greatest and most recent discovery disrupts Toby’s universe. He has announced to the world that the tree they call home is alive. You see, Toby, his family, and the other people in his world are measured in millimeters and literally live in a tree. Toby Alone is chockablock with action, intrigue, and marvelous—if tiny—charac ters who live in an allegorical world with environmental hazards and villains that threaten to destroy the very life that sustains them. The book won the Marsh Award (Great Britain) for children’s literature in translation, France’s Prix Sorcières, and Italy’s Premio Andersen Prize. lmp
Translated by Sarah Ardizzone.
From the Publisher
Translated into twenty-two languages.
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?