The Tree by Graeme Base (Puffin) HB RRP $24.99 9781760897048
Reviewed by
Dianne Bates
The words ‘sumptuous’
and ‘exquisite’ spring to mind when one turns the pages of this beautiful
picture book by one of Australia’s world-renown and most talented illustrators.
In fact, I gasped when I turned a page – to see the double page spread of a
(woolly) cow inside a turret, up among the branches of the central tree with
other creatures: it is absolutely stunning: the tree’s leaves, trunk, and
branches so faithfully realistic you feel as though they you could reach out
and touch them. Base, whose first picture book Animalia has achieved
classic status with worldwide sales of over three million copies, has created a
detailed and amazing natural world with the illustrations in his latest book.
The story,
which has a positive message about sharing one’s natural environment, is about
a cow and a duck who share ‘a very big tree’, full of ripe plums which Cow calls
‘mooberries’, and with toadstools, which Duck calls ‘mushquacks ’ amongst its
roots. Cow builds a castle in the sky, complete with a drawbridge while Duck
settles in a secret hideaway under the roots, locked behind a secret door with
a secret key. They forget about each other but are drawn together when the tree
is attacked by a storm, then another.
So much of
this story is told pictorially. There is, for instance, a magnificent illustration
of Cow and Duck, surrounded by other creatures, sitting glumly amongst the
rubble of the destroyed tree with a golden moon. One could spend hours looking
at this spread, and other spreads, finding so much which is not at first obvious. That the animals
come from different parts of the world is a small criticism.
I cannot
praise this book high enough. It is sure to win book awards and to become
a classic. Highly recommended.
