Once there was a tree

Ages 3-9. To whom does a tree in the forest belong? ``To all, because it grows from the earth that is home for all.'' Exquisite, full-color paintings and an elegant design enhance the short, repetitive, memorable text.

Gr 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 (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.