The Little Tree - Hardcover

Van, Muon

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1939547199 ISBN 13: 9781939547194

Publisher: Creston Books, 2015

Synopsis

When the Little Tree sees the world around her narrowing, she worries about what life will be like for her Little Seed. She decides to take the biggest risk of all, and let Little Seed find a richer life on her own.

About this title

About the Author

Muon Van works in a green armchair near a sooty fireplace in a chilly room on a piney hill in Northern California. Therefore, she loves blankets, particularly fuzzy purple ones.
JoAnn Adinolfi has written and illustrated many children's books. The Bank Street College of Education has chosen her titles for their Best Children's Books lists and she recently won the Gold Medal, Mom's Choice Award. She lives in Portsmith, NH.

Review

"The motherly tree in The Little Tree is a much better role model than that other giving tree.” Muon Van’s tree is able to do what’s best for her baby seed even though it means launching her offspring to a better life in a new world."
Susan Kunhardt, Book Passage

"A touchingly heartfelt story with vibrant, imaginative
illustrations from one of my favorite artists."
Laurie Keller, author of The Scrambled States of America

"This fun and fanciful fable offers a charming and warm connection for children to make to the natural world - through a story that reminds us of the beauty in loving and letting go."
Beth Needel, Excecutive Director, Lafayette Library and Learning Center Foundation

"A Giving Tree for a new generation."
Summer Dawn Laurie, Books Inc.

"Using a tree and her seed as metaphor, Van draws on her immigrant background to demonstrate parental love for a child, even if it means letting go. An anthropomorphic little tree is worried that the forest around her is no longer flourishing and wants a better life for her little seed. "Are trees this small everywhere?" she asks a brown bird and learns that there is a place "where trees grow a hundred feet tall" and "leaves are so thick, you can sit in the shade all day!" The little tree decides to toss her seed into the wind. Over the years, the little tree wonders what has become of her bab y seed. "Is it strong and tall? Does it remember me at all?" When the brown bird returns, it tells her about a very special tree; perhaps that is her little seed? The little tree receives her answer when an elegant leaf twirls and shimmers right into her armlike branches. Adinolfi expertly layers mixed media comprising colored pencils, gouache, stamping, and more to create texture and movement on the static page. Add vibrant colors in saturated hues, and the story's dreamlike environs come to life. Full of gentle rhythm and repetition, this deceptively simple, layered poetic tale will charm its way into readers' hearts and begs to be read over and over again."
Kirkus Reviews, starred review   "Muon Van’s Author’s Note” at book’s end is a complementary story unto itself. As she poignantly explains why she’s written The Little Tree for her mother, Van details her family’s departure from war-torn Vietnam, and their eventual root-taking on the other side of the world. Van writes about how her mother is both the little tree and the little seed,” of how she went far from her depleted, vanishing homeland for a new life in the United States; there she planted a family of her own, only to release her grown children out into the vast world. Artist JoAnn Adinolfi infuses Van’s familial fairy tale with vibrant colors, swirling motion, and whimsical details throughout, as if a reminder of the beauty all around us, even in difficult situations.
Written with empathy, drawn with vivacity, The Little Tree turns out to be quite a big story filled with hope, care, trust, and so much love."
Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center

"A small tree, dwarfed by taller trees in a dwindling forest, makes the difficult decision to send her seed away, so that it may flourish where she cannot. This tough, affecting premise becomes even more so when Van (In a Village by the Sea), in an author’s note, ties the story to her own family’s exodus from Vietnam and to the broader difficulties facing immigrant or refugee families. Van and Adinolfi (The Perfect Christmas) work in synch to preserve the story’s emotional power without allowing it to become overly grim. Van writes in the pared-down, repeating language of a fable ( The sun rose and the sun set. The little tree lost count of the seasons”), while Adinolfi’s mixed-media illustrations, rendered in a bright and cheery palette, picture the little tree and her seed with large, googly eyes in a landscape of rolling hills dotted with houses. The idea that letting someone go can sometimes be the best way to love them isn’t an easy one to share with children (or parents, for that matter), but Van and Adinolfi do so with grace and aplomb. Ages 3 up."
Publishers Weekly, starred review

"The Little Tree is so brilliant because the story has so many interpretations. I feel that every readers will take something different away from the story, but all readers will be moved by this heart warming story. To me, this was a story about a mother letting her children go so that the child has a better life than she did. That the mother knew that the deed was destined to greater things. That as a mother we want our children to succeed and grow to their full potential. To others, this story may be so very different. All I am certain of is that I LOVED it. Not only was the story brilliant , but the illustrations were also amazing. So much vibrant colors and creatures within the pages. It is one of those books that I want to hop into and sit beneath the tress. I want to listen to the animals moving about the forest. I want to smell the smells of nature surrounding me! This book is a must have for your child's home library! 5 stars!!!"
--Mrs.Mommy Booknerd's Book Reviews

"The poignant story and the colorful art will appeal to many."
--School Library Journal

"The Little Tree" is a touching picture book story for young children that teaches an important meaning of nurturing love: sometimes you have to let go to let your loved one grow. In pages filled with bright painted images of the little tree in her larger forest filled with flying birds, the story of "The Little Tree" unfolds in something akin to narrative free verse. The little tree lives in a shrinking group of mighty old trees surrounded by encroaching human development, and she hopes for a better growing environment for her little seed. She is inspired by the wisdom of a little brown bird who flies to her and tells her of wonderful places where all kinds of trees grow to be a hundred feet tall, with thick leaves and shade everywhere. Though she loves her little seed and will miss her, she asks the brown bird to promise to do her a favor and flap his wings with all his might. Finally the little tree let go of her little seed, watching it fly away with the little brown bird. Much later, after many days and seasons, the little tree asked the brown bird about her little seed. "Where is my little seed? Is it strong and tall? Does it remember me at all?" And after much more waiting, the little tree received an answer, in the form of a floating leaf, shimmering with the color of emeralds. In a joyous, celebratory two page scene, the little tree understood the message of the floating leaf. Her little seed was alive and well, grown into a wonderful tree, and it still remembered her. "The Little Tree" was written by a daughter for her Vietnamese mother, part of an immigrant family who became a model for "The Little Tree" in what she courageously did for her children. A poignant author's note explains a part of the many resonances of the inspiring message of "The Little Tree."
--MidWest Book Review

"Narrated by a little tree, who must let go of her little seed, the story parallels the difficult and brave journey immigrants endure. They must leave a homeland to start afresh in a new country with a different language and customs, continuously trying to do what they can for their offspring. The writing is poetic. The illustrations, created with gouache, watercolor, colored pencils and digital media, add an appropriate and pleasing charm."
--San Jose Mercury

"Van ( In a Village by the Sea”) tells the sad, lovely tale of a tree who realizes that the forest she lives in is shrinking. Worried, she asks a bird if trees do better in other places. The answer is yes, and the tree must decide whether she should let her little seed go in the hopes of a better life. As an author’s note about Van’s ­Vietnamese-American family spells out, this parable about emigration explores the excruciating decision many parents face to let children go into an unknown culture that has more to offer."
--New York Times Sunday Book Review

"A NEW FAVORITE!!!! I adored Muon Van's other book The Village by the Sea and when the chance arose to read The Little Tree I was so excited!! I was not disappointed by the new book by the brilliant story teller Muon Van. The Little Tree is so brilliant because the story has so many interpretations. I feel that every readers will take something different away from the story, but all readers will be moved by this heart warming story. To me, this was a story about a mother letting her children go so that the child has a better life than she did. That the mother knew that the deed was destined to greater things. That as a mother we want our children to succeed and grow to their full potential. To others, this story may be so very different. All I am certain of is that I LOVED it. Not only was the story brilliant , but the illustrations were also amazing. So much vibrant colors and creatures within the pages. It is one of those books that I want to hop into and sit beneath the tress. I want to listen to the animals moving about the forest. I want to smell the smells of nature surrounding me! This book is a must have for your child's home library! 5 stars!!!"
--Mrs.Mommy Booknerd's Reviews

"In this moving story, a little tree sends her only seed into the world for a chance at a better life when the forest they live in experiences prolonged drought. In the author’s note, Muon Van states that the book was written for her mother, who's both the little tree and the little seed.” Van’s mother left Vietnam after the fall of Saigon, leaving behind her father, who garnered enough resources to enable his children’s journey but decided to stay in his homeland to take care of the family’s ancestral altar. Van’s mother’s role changed from the transplanted little seed to the little tree after she had nine children herself. In this homage to her mother,Van has created a poignant, powerful allegory of immigration and dispersal and the sacrifices parents make to give their children a promising future."
--International Examiner

About this edition

• Publisher: Creston Books
• Publication date: 2015
• ISBN 10: 1939547199
• ISBN 13: 9781939547194
• Binding: Hardcover
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 32
• Illustrator: Adinolfi JoAnn