What Would Wood Be?

The Tale Of The Three Trees

Retold by Angela Elwell Hunt

Illustrated by Tim Jonke

Chariot Victor Publishing, 2004

25 pages

Traditional

            We received this book as a gift one year from a family friend and I had forgotten about it until this assignment came along.  I was looking for books in my son’s room and found it again.  I sat down in the floor and read it.  This is a wonderful book about three trees that all dreamed of being something more than just trees.  They all want to be big wonderful things, and when they are cut down and made into common everyday things, they are upset.  One is even left in a pile until one day the wood is used to do something wonderful for the world.  Now, if you want to know what a tree did for the world, well, you will have to read the book.

            The surreal illustrations are done in water colors of blue, white, green and red.  The illustrations are done in the most formal way with the art work on the page with the text beside it.  The text is large enough to see but not overpowering to the reader.  I really like how most of the illustrations are kind of hazy, but the trees and the items made from the trees are clearer than the rest of the pictures.

            This book would be good for kindergarten through sixth grade.  This book has a strong Christian theme, so it would not be appropriate in a public school setting, but it would be good in a Christian and/or private school.  I would use this book for a science lesson on the life-cycle of a tree.  A social studies lesson would be good to teach children that we don’t always reach our dreams the same way other people may.  A character education lesson would be good to show students how to have kindness and understanding of one another.  As of today this book has not won any honors.