Once There Was a Tree - Hardcover

Romanova, Natalia

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0803702353 ISBN 13: 9780803702356

Publisher: Dial, 1985

Synopsis

An old stump attracts many living creatures, even man, and when it is gone, a new tree attracts the same creatures, who need it for a variety of reasons.

About this title

About the Author

Gennady Spirin was born in 1948 in a small city near Moscow. A graduate of the Strogonov Academy of Fine Arts, he is noted for his beautiful illustrations, meticulously researched and exquisitely executed in pencil and watercolor. His work has brought him international renown as many awards, including the Gold Medal of the Society of Illustrators, the Golden Apple of the Bratislava International Biennale of children's book illustration, First Prize for Illustration at the Barcelona International Children's Book Fair, and the Premio Grafico at the Bologna Children's Book Fair. His book Gulliver's Adventures in Lilliput (retold by Ann Keay Beneduce) was chosen one of the Ten Best Illustrated Books of the Year by the New York Times Book Review.

Gennady Spirin came to the United States in 1991 and now lives with his wife and their three sons in Princeton, New Jersey. copyright ? 2000 by Penguin Putnam Books for Young Readers. All rights reserved.

Reviews

Grade 2-4 With its exquisite endpapers, elaborate picture borders and richly detailed oil paintings, Once There Was a Tree seems to hold great promise. But a ponderous narrative and a didactic conclusion mar the book's potential. The story focuses on a tree which is struck by lightning during a violent storm. A woodsman discovers the broken tree and saws it down to its stump. One by one, a beetle, ants, a bear, a titmouse, a frog and an earwig make the stump their own. But who really owns it? "Maybe the tree stump belongs to allthe beetles and the ants. . .and even the man. All must live together." The message is conveyed without subtlety; the narrative is further impaired by its rigidly sequential telling. Lacking both character development and any meaningful exchange between characters, the story falls flat. Indeed, children will wonder what happened to the bear when the bird came along, or to the bird when the frog took over. Devotees of the illustrated book will savor the elaborate design of this one, but the story's heavy theme (possibly due to its Russian origin) will limit its appeal to children. Anne E. Mulherkar, formerly at District of Columbia Public Library
Copyright 1986 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Edition details

• Publisher: Dial
• Publication date: 1985
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0803702353
• ISBN 13: 9780803702356
• Binding: Hardcover
• Illustrator: Spirin Gennady
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 32