The Only Branch on the Family Tree by Sherryl Clark

Title: The Only Branch on the Family Tree

Author: Sherryl Clark

Genre: Verse novel

Publisher: UQP

Published: 29^th April 2025

Format: Paperback

Pages: 112

Price: $14.99

Synopsis: It’s always been Gemma and her mum – just the two of them. As close as best friends. But while researching a class project about family, Gemma makes a life-changing discovery. Her nan is not dead, like Mum told her, but alive and well and living close by.

Gemma now has huge question marks hanging over her. Why would Mum lie about this? What is her nan like? And what would happen if Gemma tried to find her?

The Only Branch on the Family Tree is a story about secrets, forgiveness and finding a way for relationships to blossom.

A poignant middle-grade verse novel about family estrangement and reconciliation from Prime Minister’s Literary Award-winning author Sherryl Clark.

~*~

Every family is different – but when Gemma’s class is asked to create a family tree, Gemma is lost. It’s just been her and her mum for thirteen years. No father, no siblings, no grandparents, no aunts or uncles. Just the two of them – a single branch, if that, of a tree. Gemma is determined to do well, but she needs to research her family, which uncovers the truth about her grandmother – she’s not dead and lives very close to her and her mum. But can Gemma answer her questions about her family, about why her mum lied, and can she find out what happened?

This lovely verse novel from UQP and Sherryl Clark looks at family dynamics from a different perspective – about estrangement and isolation within families, because not every family is the same. Being alone with her mum for so long has been fine, or so Gemma thought. It’s about the secrets people keep, and about working out how to forgive people for past wrongs, for conflict that has led to estrangement and how everyone deals with this differently. Whilst the book doesn’t touch on the specifics of the conflict and estrangement, I think this is what makes it so much more powerful and allows readers to see themselves in this novel, especially if they have been through similar experiences to Gemma.

This book is also about relationships, how they change and how they blossom. It explores what it means when we make efforts to connect with people and find out more about people we have always wondered about. Relationships, particularly family ones can be fraught and change, sometimes in bad ways. And books like this show that not everyone has the same type of family. That families can be all different things for different people, and sometimes, there are things that can be hard. Things that people can’t talk about, and Sherryl Clark’s book can help children understand why this might be the case, or understand that estranged families exist. And, I think it can open up discussions about different family dynamics and expectations people might have, and what it can mean when these conflicts might get in the way of spending time together. Or even just finding ways to ensure everyone is able to be part of a family and be heard.

I think a verse novel was the perfect vehicle for this. Did I have questions about the estrangement? Yes, of course. However, I think the genius of this is that a reader can interpret this in a way that makes sense for them. It’s these gaps that can trigger the imagination, and make people think critically. Make them understand that the world is different for everyone. It shows that there are different ways to explore stories like this, and that allowing a wide range of experiences to be showcased, we have a diverse range of stories for people to relate to.