The Home Tree

About the Book

Having a home and having connections to family. These are some of life's most basic values and needs. When times get tough, even those who have left seeking a new life of their own often return to their roots and find comfort and security. Some animals in The Home Tree left their long-time family home. But when something happened beyond their control, they sought safety and community ... and ended up right where their ancestors started. The Home Tree is a sweet story about small animals in a forest, with stunningly beautiful illustrations that pre-school children will love. While they enjoy the story book, they will learn the strength and security of family and community. The important themes of sharing and cooperation are also woven into the short text that children will want to hear again and again. The Home Tree was created when the author (elected mayor of Marion, NC in 2009) held his toddler daughters in the front porch swing at home near the Blue Ridge Mountains of western North Carolina. This bed-time story was many years later put in writing, with magnificent customized illustrations by a young man who teaches elementary school in Texas. You and your child will love The Home Tree.

About the Author

As the father of two daughters, Steve Little read and told them bed-time stories a long time ago when his daughters were very young. One of the stories he made up over twenty years ago is now published as The Home Tree. Little was born and raised in the flatlands of Smithfield in eastern North Carolina and chose to move to Marion in the foothills-mountains of western North Carolina after graduating from Wake Forest University School of Law in 1977. Little is an experienced transactional and trial attorney, a previous teacher of survival camping, an active church member, a current or former trustee of several North Carolina Baptist institutions (Wingate University, Baptist Children's Homes of NC, NC Baptist Hospital of Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center), a regular speaker at professional continuing education seminars on estate planning and estate administration, the 2010-2011 state moderator of the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship of North Carolina, and the Mayor of Marion, North Carolina. He is married to the former Alice Hobbs and his two adult daughters are Mary and Sally. In the picture on the back cover (taken in November 2010), Little is surrounded by some of the 4-6 graders in the Sunday School class he teaches at First Baptist Church in Marion, NC. Little is also the author of another book published by AuthorHouse: Tunnels, Nitro and Convicts. This is the amazing but true story of the construction by North Carolina state prison inmates of the section of railroad that climbs up the eastern continental divide in McDowell County in western North Carolina. The project started only ten years after the end of the Civil War, when both money and manpower were scarce. Using mainly flat rocks, supplemented by some sledge hammers and spikes ... plus the first use of nitroglycerine in the southeastern United States ... the convicts cleared and smoothed 9.4 miles through the wooded mountains to lay track. Six tunnels were pounded through essentially solid rock, from 89 feet in length to 1800 feet in length. Many pictures in Tunnels, Nitro and Convicts were taken by the author as long ago as 1971. This book is available at www.authorhouse.com.