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"The Tree House" Marije Tolman

Author:

Marije Tolman

Publisher:

Lemniscaat USA

Tolman, Marije & Ronald. THE TREE HOUSE, Lemniscaat 2009

This celebrates the shared joy of reading, and of friends welcomed and hospitality given. In a downpour, white polar bears swims to a tree house shelter. Shortly, a brown bear in a boat arrives and the two enjoy their books as a host of other animals and birds arrive. Flamingos fly in but, mysteriously; a rhinoceros arrives as does a hippo. Most come seemingly on their own, but another bear comes sailing through the air on a ship with sails. After the new friends frolic and depart, brown and white bear contemplate the falling snow and the moon together.

Wordless books are less common today than they were previously but this shows once again how evocative the format can be, and how useful as a stimulus to children’s thoughts and language. In an elegantly oversized trim size, the double spreads start at a luxuriously empty title page. Even at the peak of the action when all the animals are gathered, there isn’t a feeling of crowding, but rather ample space to let the eye really explore the details. Most details are presented in a spidery line with a few dabs of color solidly filling in some shapes but these never obscure the airy quality which pervades the art. Children would intrigued to examine this, to think and talk about what is happening, where and why.

John Warren Stewig, Carthage College, Kenosha WI