The Sugar-Gum Tree
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Cover Story
The illustration on our cover this month is by Andrew Skilleter from Susan Cooper's Over Sea, Under Stone. Susan Cooper is interviewed by Stephanie Nettell. The book is published by Bodley Head, to whom we are grateful for help in using this illustration.
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Send to friendThe Sugar-Gum Tree
Illustrated by David Cox
A miniature saga celebrating the double edged power of childhood friendship through a splendid account of childhood bloody mindedness. Sarah and Penny's work on the construction of a playhouse in the shade of the sugar-gum tree is interrupted when the former calls the latter a 'gloop', causing her to shin up the tree and stay there, in spite of all the efforts of two sets of parents and the fire brigade. The way in which this predicament is eventually resolved is surprising, yet very happily apt. Anyone experienced in cutting off their own nose in order to spite a friend's face will identify with this short, strong, simple book. Excellent for reading aloud, and for getting children to talk about their own experiences of conflict.
