The Old Tree by: Ruth Brown

The Old Tree by Ruth Brown is a wonderful story about all of these animals that live in a tree marked with an X. One of the great things about this book is that each of the animals have their own little story about their lives, directed by Pigeon, the mail man. He tells all of them, your tree has an x on it, do you know why? None of them know, until he gets to the top of the tree when Captain Crow realizes it means the tree is going to get cut down. The second reason why this book is great is becuase all of the animals, even though they do not get along, work together to save all of their homes. Once one person sparks an idea, they all went with it and tried their hardest, which is great for children to learn. The third reason why I loved this book so much is that the illustrations are beautifully done in acrylic and watercolor. The art takes up both sides of the open pages, with only one long rectangle for the writing. Not only are the pictures amazing, but the last page is a pop up of a giant tree with all of the animals celebrating around it, becuase they saved the tree. I love that they did this, because it works really well with the story, and adds a lot to it. I think that this pop up made the tree come alive for me, it even included window flaps, so you could see animals inside their houses celebrating. Overall, I think that this story has a good message and beautiful artwork to attract all ages.