The Survivor Tree ― Oklahoma City's Symbol of Hope and Strength

A family plants an American elm on the Great Plains of Oklahoma just as the capital city is taking root—the little tree grows as Oklahoma City grows until 9:02 a.m. on April 19, 1995, the day America fell silent at the hands of one of its own. With her branches torn and tattered and filled with evidence from the bombing, the charred elm faces calls that she be cut down. In the end, as the rubble of the Alfred P. Murrah Building is cleared, this solitary tree remains—but only because of a few who marvel that, like them, she is still there. The next spring when the first buds appear proving the tree is alive, the word spreads like a prairie wildfire through the city and the world. And the tree, now a beacon of hope and strength, is christened with a new name: The Survivor Tree.

Gaye Sanders is a fourth-grade teacher in Oklahoma who makes sure each year to share the story of the Oklahoma City bombing with her students. This is her first book.