Appalachian Mountains, Tennessee. During the years of the Great Depression. A five-year-old boy goes to live with his grandparents, Cherokee Indians, after the death of his parents. He is now Little Tree and discovers the world through the wisdom of Native American tradition. He learns to respect Nature and take only what he needs from it; to be honest with his feelings and to share with others what is worth; to orient himself towards the true values of life, love and understanding; to love reading through the storytelling evenings organized by his grandmother, Beautiful Melissa, with the stories of "Mr. Shakespeare".

In a world ravaged by the greed of the whites, Little Tree is educated in a way of life unknown to most people.

An autobiographical novel by American author Forrest Carter, a literary pseudonym of Asa Earl Carter, first published in 1977 and became one of the classic works of American literature with worldwide resonance. A reference book for generations of readers who were moved by its timeless, universal message and discovered in it an alternative perspective in a mechanistic and materialistic world.

"The Education of Little Tree" was awarded the American Booksellers Association Book of the Year in 1991, and in 1997 it was adapted into a film directed by Richard Friedenberg.