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Little Tree

By Loren Long

Loren Long’s Little Tree gave me a great idea for a “two fer” for young readers; back to back readings of two “tree” themed books.

The first is Hans Christian Andersen’s classic, called The Fir Tree, and the second, is Loren Long’s Little Tree.

Both are stories with a surface tale to tell, but with deeper meanings both you and your young reader may want to talk over, or they may simply intuit on their own.

Trees have always appeared to me as symbols of strength, growth and adaptability to change. They go with the flow, so to speak.  Most change with the seasons and take what comes…gently.

These two authors appear to depict opposite ways of a tree looking at adaptability to change. And there are truly wonderful lessons to be learned in both books!

In The Fir Tree, readers meet a small fir tree in a fresh forest awash with stately firs,  towering tall over him. He can’t wait to be as they are. But their fate, and use, is to be chopped down and carted off to be the masts of tall ships.

The sun and wind admonish him to rejoice in his youth, his fresh growth and in the young life in him. Does the tree listen? Nope! He wants more… the next big thing. Perhaps, Mr. Andersen was keying in to the impatience of youth? Can’t you hear those voices?

      I’ll be happy when… I can stay up late…have a two wheeler…have a sleepover… go to the mall or the movies alone… drive a car… go to high school… go to college… live on my own!

Sound familiar, parents? Well, some maybe not quite yet.

Yet, a passing bird tells the fir tree of a glorious future awaiting decorated trees in a households that he has seen.

The tale unfolds of the fir tree experiencing being felled as a Christmas tree, the excitement and moment of splendor on Christmas Eve as candles glow on his branches, and later he is pillaged of the gifts that fill his branches.

He sadly thinks there are more moments such as these to come, as he ponders his future, and unceremoniously stuffed in a garret.

Yet even here, he is hopeful entertaining the passing parades of mice and rats that listen to his retelling of the tale of Humpty Dumpty, he first heard on Christmas Eve.

What’s next? That seems to be his constant topic of conversation, and sadly the reader knows what’s next for all Christmas trees past their expiration dates!

Savor the moment seems to be the message here; revel in it, bathe in its beauty, and do not wish it too soon gone. For it will never come again. How do we teach our children to embrace and value the now? Just maybe with books such as these!

These are pretty sobering thoughts for a picture book, no? But then, the truly great authors both entertain and enlighten.

Loren Long’s Little Tree takes an entirely different tack:

        “Life is perfect just the way it is.”

He loves those leaves that cool him in the summer’s heat, and as the autumn winds ruffle his leaves, and those of the towering trees in the forest that surround him, he will not let go of his browned and dried up leaves.

The other trees surrender effortlessly to the harsher winds of the coming winter that strip the leaves bare. But not Little Tree.

        Then one by one, the trees began to

        drop their leaves. But not Little Tree.

        He just hugged his leaves tighter.

A squirrel, passing doe and red fox query Little Tree as to “What are you doing with your leaves still on you?” His answer is a tighter grip on what he knows. And the pattern continues as the seasons come and go.

All around him, trees of his original height are now burgeoning with new altitudes and lofty with leaves. But not Little Tree. He is safe and …stuck where is in his comfort zone, clinging tighter as successive  season pass.

At last, one winter, with snow falling in buckets, he looks at the trees, bare limbed that were once his size, now dwarfing him. And he gets it and lets go of his leaves.

Loren Long has written a simple parable about a number of things, and perhaps among them are:

         Let nature take its course. She’s a great teacher.

 

         Don’t be afraid of the unknown.

 

         Too much stubbornness stunts growth.

 

         It takes courage to let go of what

         we know.. to find what we need. 

Time, acceptance and love can be the great healers and facilitators of growth in us as well.

Even though Little Tree feels the harshness of winter minus his leaves, over time

            …something happened.

And hopefully, that something will resonate through the growth cycles of young readers in your own life, as it does wonderfully in the life lessons taught by Loren Long’s Little Tree and The Fir Tree by Hans Christian Andersen.

Growing, whether in child or tree, is a journey and a gift. Sometimes we want to stay where we are because it’s safe.

Children need to sense and savor that fully as it fills them with security, to be sure. And maybe it even works for us for a time.

But, we will never know how far we can journey, if we stay where we are.

Pioneer Girl: The Annotated Autobiography

Laura Ingalls Wilder; editor Pamela Smith Hill

For those parents and readers that made the “The Little House on the Prairie” book series a part of their lives growing up, and its equally successful follow up TV series, here is a definitive autobiography to poke, peruse and page through. It is not the typical picture book. In fact it is not a picture book at all!

But, just maybe, over the long summer months, it is the book to share bits and pieces of, with your young readers. It could be used as a priming introduction to the reading of the books themselves, on the Ingalls family’s adventures in Kansas, Missouri, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Iowa and the Dakota Territory.

It is not a book to be read in one sitting or even several, but it is so rich with insight to an author’s experiences that fed a book series, it certainly reveals through its pages, an even fuller view into Ms. Ingalls’ pioneering family life.

With its “one hundred twenty-five images, eight fully researched maps and hundreds of annotations based on numerous primary sources, including census data, county state and federal records, and newspapers of the period,” it puts “The Little House on the Prairie” series and the sixteen years of travel of this remarkable family in full relief.

Here is the story of how an unpublished memoir made it to a book series that became a triumph of publishing magic.

Through her own stories, Ms. Wilder was able to frame the larger stories of the culture and communities that she was part of in her family’s travels.

Those people that Ms. Ingalls Wilder chronicled and cared about are brought to a fresher insight through this over-sized 370 page book.

I love the scene in the book on page 322, taken from the book called “These Happy Golden Years” in which the now grown Laura Ingalls and Almanzo Wilder take their vows, in a very simple ceremony, as man and wife:

           “We were at Mr. Brown’s

            at eleven and were married

           at once with Ida Brown and

           Elmer McConnell as witnesses.

 

           Mr. Brown had promised me not

           to use the word “obey” in the

           ceremony and he kept his word.”

 

It’s not so much what is said through the lines on the page. It is what is inferred by the reader about the writer. And it is wonderful.

If you want to see and read, at your considerable leisure this summer, some insight into the patience, pluck and perseverance of a writer named Laura Ingalls Wilder nee Laura Ingalls, then this book is the window of opportunity.

It’s a rare treat providing a thorough look into the life that filled the pages of a book series that fueled a TV series, that entertained millions of faithful readers and viewers.

Thumb through memories with Laura and introduce your children to a true heroine.

Roald Dahl’s Revolting Recipes

illustrated by Quentin Blake

Young kids are somehow or other charmed by the appeal of the yucky. In fact, the yuckier the better. Witness the appeal associated with JK Rowling’s candies that appeared in the Harry Potter series. Remember the ones that surprised “muggles” and wizards alike with their taste when you popped them in your mouth? They were called Bertie’s Botts Every Flavor Bean. Some were, shall we say, revolting. Beans with flavor recalling something emanating from one’s nose was one you could inadvertently come across in the choices, and that is but one with the ick factor that comes to mind. For the sake of delicacy, I shall not go further.

Playful, with just a smattering of the icky might well describe this recipe filled book for hungry kids, taken from titles of foods named in Roald Dahl’s books. I’m willing to bet that readers were just itching to taste some of the deliciously deviant things named in Dahl’s reads.

How about Eatable Marshmallow Pillows and Lickable Wallpaper from “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory”, Stink Bugs’ Eggs, and Mosquitoes’ Toes and Wimpish Roes Most Delicately Fried from “James and the Giant Peach?” And my all time favorite might be The Enormous Crocodile, who, when finished, could well serve as a party centerpiece! Beware the coat hangar inserted to keep him whole!

Bruce Bogtrotter’s Cake from “Matilda” looked yummy and Boggis’s Chicken taken from “Fantastic Mr. Fox” actually looked quite tempting.

When you pair these tempting treats with Quentin Blake’s recognizably iconic Dahl book art style, you may find yourself pulling out the pots and pans with the kids to give these recipes a go.

With more leisure time for fun things ahead this summer, I think it might be a great pairing of the actual shared reading of Roald Dahl’s wondrously witty books, right along with these tempting treats his books evoke.

Don’t be a bit surprised if the first treat the kids ask to make is Stickjaw for Talkative Parents, credited to Dahl’s “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.”

Yum! Always wanted to learn how to make meringues!