Toby Alone

Amazon Best of the Month, March 2009:  Who says great characters need to be larger than life? Meet Toby Lolness, a boy who stands one and a half millimeters tall (just smaller than the tip of a pencil). This Lilliputian hero lives in a marvelously vast complex of trunks and branches known as the Tree, an enormous oak inhabited by a tiny civilization. Toby's idyllic childhood is threatened when his scientist father figures out what keeps the Tree alive, and what will eventually cause its death: a seemingly endless supply of sap that people hope to tap and convert into a source of energy. In this thrilling eco-allegory, young Toby is in the race of his life to rescue himself, his family and the Tree from imminent destruction by powerful corporate interests that threaten them all. Timothée de Fombelle's Toby Alone takes readers on a fast-paced adventure of unusual proportions and unexpected perspectives. Now translated into nearly two dozen languages, this cleverly illustrated debut is sure to win the hearts of English readers (ages 9 and up) on this side of the Atlantic. --Lauren Nemroff

Timothée de Fombelle is a much-admired French playwright. Toby Alone and its sequel Toby and the Secrets of the Tree are highly acclaimed in France, and have won numerous awards. The translator of both books, Sarah Ardizzone (nee Adams), has won the Marsh Award for Children's Literature in Translation, and is the director of literary events for International PEN.