Once I Was a Tree

A tree tells us the story of its life, from seed to … well, you’ll have to wait until the end of the story to find that out, but it’s worth it. Once I was a tree, it begins, and we have to turn the book on its side to see the tree in all its leafy glory. We hear how it got to be so tall, how it started as a seed in a pinecone, was eaten by a squirrel named Derek and, in a scene children will love, emerged some days later from Derek’s bottom. A dung beetle called Barbara has a hand in the story too, pushing Derek’s poo to exactly the right place for the tree to put down roots. Throughout, the tree’s voice is distinctive – characterful, direct and warm, ‘I liked Barbara. She had pizzazz.’ It’s a shock to us all when the tree is cut down, but that’s not the end of the story. In fact, it’s the beginning of many, because the tree is turned into paper, and the paper into the book we are reading. The story of how a book is made has never felt so engaging or so inspiring, and as a story about stories and storytelling, it’s hard to beat too. Guilherme Karsten’s illustrations are wonderfully tactile and move us smoothly from forest to paper mill to library. Clever, informative, funny and inspiring – a good use of a tree.