Masha du Toit

What makes a good subject for a children’s picture book?  I see so many similar books on the bookshop shelves.  Clear happy pictures, short happy stories.  “Once There Was a Tree”, written by Natalia Romanova and illustrated by Gennady Spirin,  could not be more different.  As a foretaste, here is a page number:

You can read more about Spirin at this page. He is described as being “like a magician, using his paint brush as a wand.” I hope these scans of the books do justice to his work.  I was once lucky enough to see an exhibition of his original paintings.  They are breathtaking.

“Once There Was a Tree” describes the death and resurection of an old tree.  The book starts with the grand image of the old tree’s death as it is struck by lightning.

A forester comes along and cuts it down.  Then for several pages we explore what happens to the tree stump as it gradually and gently decays.

He is quite a character with his chainsaw and cigarette:

Mosses and mushroom grow in its crevices.  Insects crawl over it, and are eaten by little birds.  A bear sharpens his claws on it.  A frog shelters in its cracks.

The story celebrates all the different life forms which benefit from the “death” of the tree, and ends with a new tree growing in the rich remains of the old one.  I’m only posting a couple of the images, there are many more.  This reminds me of the Deer God in Miyazaki’s Princess Mononoke – in this film, the Deer God is both decay and death, and new life sprouting.  Death is not evil but is part of life.   “Once there was a tree”  ends with the new tree growing, and it says:

“The tree belongs to all, because it grows from the earth, that is home to all”