A young ginkgo tree planted outside an apartment building grows each year, getting to observe the lives of the residents of each floor as it gets taller. The different floors it passes through represent different stages of life and the tree experiences happy times and sometimes sad, painful, and lonely times as well. Readers will enjoy the muted yet detailed illustrations along with the simple, philosophical text.

Canadian Children's Book Centre Best Books for Kids and Teens 2019.

Author lives in Korea and has received an Opera Prima Mention for the Bologna Ragazzi Award 2012 for a previous book.

Korea. Originally published in Korea as Korean by Dreaming Kite in 2016. English translation by Hyeon-Ju Lee published in the United States by Feiwel and Friends in 2016.

Author/artist Hyeon-Ju Lee's The Happiest Tree is a wonderfully emotional story of life and growing up that will pull at the heartstrings of readers.

Over the years, the gingko tree that resides outside an apartment building has seen many things.

When it was ten, sounds of the Rose piano class filled the ground floor and whistled through its young branches.

At fourteen, a growth spurt year, it met Mr. Artist on the second floor whose muse was the tree itself.

As the years continue on, the tree encounters many people in the apartment building making memories. Some are happy, some are sad—they’re all part of growing up. All part of who we will be in the future.