The Red Tree

A small child awakes to find blackened leaves falling from her bedroom ceiling, threatening to quietly overwhelm her. 'Sometimes you wake up with nothing to look forward to ...' As she wanders around a world that is complex, puzzling and alienating, she is overtaken by a myriad of feelings. Just as it seems all hope is lost, the girl returns to her bedroom to find that a tiny red seedling has grown to fill the room with warm light. 

Shaun Tan's creation, The Red Tree, is a story about feelings - feelings that can not always be simply expressed in words. It is a series of imaginary landscapes conjured up by the wizardry of Shaun Tan's masterful and miraculous art. As a kind of fable, The Red Tree seeks to remind us that, though some bad feelings are inevitable, they are always tempered by hope.

Credits

• Written by

  Shaun Tan

• Illustrated by

  Shaun Tan

• Performed by

  Jacek Koman

• Published By

  Hachette Australia

Suitable for

Duration

Series

Reading Challenges