I truly love this book. It's brave and beautiful and stunning. It's tender and message-soaked and subtle. I'm loving the artwork Marc Martin has poured into this book, using a blend of watercolour, textas, ink, pencil, scanned textures and created computer graphics, but I'm also loving the story, which is simple but memorable and hopeful.
Once there was a forest. But someone cut a tree down. Then more people came and cut more trees down - but they kindly replaced what they took.
After some time, though, people became greedy. Trucks and power saws came. Lorries and diggers. And people forgot to replace what they took. Buildings and factories took the place of trees and all was not right with the world. The weather became catastrophic. People suffered.
Trees suffered. Life was looking grim. But for the hope of one little tree . . .
Based in Melbourne, A Forest is this talented new author/illustrator's first book. I'm poised for more.
Title: A Forest
Author/Illustrator: Marc Martin
Publisher: Viking, $24.95 RRP
Publication Date: 23 May 2012
Format: Hard cover, cloth bound
ISBN: 9780670076451
For ages: 4+
Type: Picture Book
