The Gumdrop Tree - Hardcover

Spurr, Elizabeth

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0786800089 ISBN 13: 9780786800087

Publisher: Hyperion, 1994

Synopsis

When her father gives her a bag of colorful, sugary gumdrops to eat, a little girl decides to plant them instead

About this title

Reviews

Kindergarten-Grade 1?With its bright, angular, airbrushed acrylic illustrations, this bouncy first-person narrative will make a great story-time read-aloud. A little girl plays with a bag of gumdrops given to her by her father. She can't bear the thought of eating them, because if she does, they'll be all gone. Then she has an idea?she will plant the candies and grow a gumdrop tree. She then waters and cultivates them patiently. Finally one seedling sprouts. After a while, she gives up?the tree is doing well, but it bears no sweets. She still checks on it now and then and, one wonderful day, it is literally covered with sugary drops. Of course, she eats them. In the final illustration, readers see that a couple of gumdrops remain painstakingly tied to the branches with white thread (presumably by two loving parents). The book is attractively designed; the large, bold print will appeal to beginning readers. A fun fantasy to satisfy every sweet tooth.?Jan Shepherd Ross, Dixie Elementary Magnet School, Lexington, KY
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Pictures of candies so perfectly smooth that they might tumble off the page add flavor to this otherwise slight tale. Expressing herself in mildly affected, Hemingway-esque declaratives, the narrator refuses to eat the bag of gumdrops her father has brought her ("They looked so sweet and good.... They would taste so sweet and good. But then they would be all gone"). She plants them instead, hoping that a tree bearing the chewy treats will sprout. A sapling does grow, its boughs laden with candy-however, the book's final illustration shows a tree hung with white strings, from which gumdrops dangle. (Children will wonder how and why any tree grew at all, if not from the buried treats.) The real interest here lies in debut illustrator Gorton's stylized art, an eccentrix mix of geometric shapes and almost Botero-like distortions, all airbrushed to a mechanical polish. Delicate shading takes the edge off the palette, which is dominated by strong aquas, mint-greens, yellows and reds. Ages 3-6.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Ages 5-8. A little girl's father surprises her with a bag of gumdrops. Instead of eating them, however, the child decides to plant them, and the gumdrop tree that later blooms provides her with a sweet treat. Spurr's story works well as a pleasant fantasy until it takes a jog into reality on the last page--a jog all children will understand. Varying sizes of typeface give the book a stylish look, and Gorton's airbrush technique adds glow and depth to the pictures, which are made up of flat, sharply edged images that have the fetching look of simple paper cutouts. Not a "first" purchase, but an appealing one: kids will warm to the yummy subject and the appealing graphics. Stephanie Zvirin

Edition details

• Publisher: Hyperion
• Publication date: 1994
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0786800089
• ISBN 13: 9780786800087
• Binding: Hardcover
• Illustrator: Gorton Julia
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 1