Book - Child
"With its exquisite endpapers, elaborate picture borders and richly detailed oil paintings, Once There Was a Tree seems to hold great promise. The story focuses on a tree which is struck by lightning during a violent storm. A woodsman discovers the broken tree and saws it down to its stump. One by one, a beetle, ants, a bear, a titmouse, a frog and an earwig make the stump their own. But who really owns it? "Maybe the tree stump belongs to allthe beetles and the ants. . .and even the man. All must live together." Lacking both character development and any meaningful exchange between characters, the story falls flat. Indeed, children will wonder what happened to the bear when the bird came along, or to the bird when the frog took over." From School Library Journal
All Ages
Preschool/Kindergarten (3-5), School Age (6-12)
English
0140546774
Natalia Romanova
1989 Puffin Books
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