Illustrator: Barry RootPublished: Original 1979, newly illustrated 2008
Rating: 4
Endpapers: Glossy rust with newly planted tree in 2" oval on front, Fully grown (and happy!) in the same oval in the back
Barry Root did a lovely job illustratiing this "second coming" of The Birthday Tree. His watercolors are lovely and fit the story beautifully. The cover doesn't seem particularly enticing, but the corresponding illustration inside works just fine. It may be the font of the title that turns me off.
"Once there was a sailor who fled from the sea. He and his wife had lost three sons to the waves, so they gathered up their belongings in a creaky wheelbarrow and left the water behind them." The went three days away from the sea, built a house, had another son, named him Jack, and planted a tree to commemorate his birth. The tree grew. Jack grew. Jack played in the tree and snoozed underneath it. And soon Jack's parents discovered that when Jack was feeling poorly, the tree drooped. When he was happy, the tree was perky.
"The sailor and his wife never spoke of the sea. Yet sometimes a strong, salt wind would blow in from the ocean and the sailor would notice Jack sniffing the air with curiosity." Jack takes off, and they watch for signs on the tree that indicate Jack's happiness and whereabouts. They "see" him traveling the sea, happy for awhile, then shipwrecked, starving, dying, then being rescued. Just when they don't know what's happened to him, they find him curled up and asleep in his bed - home at last.
Someone said this book is a parable. It's certainly mystical. It's a cool story by one of my all-time favorite writers.
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