Publisher: Puffin Book (2020)

Writer and illustrator: Graeme Base

Graeme Base is the master of illustrations that brings alive every story and tale. “The Tree” is another gallery of true artworks that presents us with pages of visual stimulations and banquets of masterpieces. Four-year-old little-AJ likes the book but doesn’t feel much about the story. I personally think the book beautiful in so many layers, and I silently suspect this is a book for the adults reading to the kids, disguised in the form of “preschool” book in few words.

This is a story about a cow, a duck, and a very big tree. It’s a strange story where a cow (a lover of “mooberies”) chose to reside at the top of the tree in an elaborately built castle with drawbridge and turrets. The duck loved his secret hideout beneath the tree where he got to enjoy “Mushquacks” amongst the roots. Both unaware or oblivious to each other’s presence, till a storm changes the fate of the two occupants of the same tree.

Each suspicious of each other, with zero trust, full of paranoia and unfounded imaginations, the cow and the duck started sabotaging the tree, each set up their defence mechanism and prepared to attack. Then came another storm, and gone was the tree. The ending was a sweet and happy ending of trust, working together, new life, new tree, and new friends where all doors are kept opened.

Illustrations wise, they are as usually, stunning, heart-warning, full of emotions, perfect in the changes of colours to suit mood and atmosphere of each scene. But it is the story that makes me pause and ponder. The storyline is straightforward, succinct, and short. It is opened for each reader to interpret, to conclude, and to draw messages from the texts.

Perhaps, there is really no “hidden” message underneath the simple words. Or perhaps, there are some deeper meanings within? Is the writer trying to draw analogy to the Mother Earth and its dwellers? Or are we talking about the suspicions that people generally have towards “newcomers” to the land? Is a natural disaster the common way to bring people together to work towards a goal? Too many unknowns, yet so many possibilities. I think this book is a true keeper, and who knows, in another few years time, we might view the story from a completely different perspective.

P/S: this is a library copy