Trees are everywhere in picture books, almost as familiar as the sight of children playing in their branches in real life. Think of Max joyously tree-swinging in Where the Wild Things Are or the verdant woods of The Gruffalo. This year, however, as discussion around the role of trees amid the climate crisis continues apace, forests move from backdrop to cover stars.
In Emily Haworth-Booth’s The Last Tree (Pavilion, 6 Feb), a group of friends find the perfect forest to set up home. But as they become more domesticated – building houses, busying themselves with indoor chores – they grow increasingly distanced from nature, and one another. When they decide to chop down the last tree, fittingly it’s the children who make them see sense. Haworth-Booth has a background in graphic novels (she won the 2013 Observer/Jonathan Cape/Comica graphic short story prize) and here uses the form particularly effectively to illustrate the different squabbling families. At times mimicking the scrawly, colouring-in style of children, her charming drawings also emphasise how key the perspective of young people is in both her fable, and our relationship with the natural world.
The Song of the Tree (Particular, 5 March), another exquisite, clothbound tale from Coralie Bickford-Smith, the award-winning author of The Fox and the Star, concerns a bird not quite ready to leave the branches of her perfect jungle corner. After the rest of her flock migrates, the bird witnesses the other animals who play and rest in her majestic tree. Bickford-Smith’s illustrations are so vivid and patterned, reminiscent of traditional African wax prints, that each page feels alive. The night-time stars and fireflies sparkle, though there’s no glitter or foil used, while elsewhere the text swoops bird-like across the page.
With its zippy rhythm and bright yellow cover, Yasmeen Ismail’s Would You Like a Banana? (Walker), is another book to transport readers at this grey time of the year. An unseen, impressively patient narrator tries to coax a hungry gorilla determined not to eat a banana: “Bananas can be good with honey. Slice it up, pretend it’s money.” Little children will giggle at the gorilla pictured with his bum out, while grownups with food-rejecting offspring should enjoy the drawing of his disgusted face as he rebuffs the snack. Of course, as soon as the gorilla is left alone he eats the banana and then asks for another one – without saying please. Parenting in a nutshell.
The little girl kicking her legs on the front of I Am Brown (Lantana, 3 March) will also raise a smile with her contagious grin. A celebration of having brown skin, the debut picture book from the bestselling Indian author Ashok Banker has a simple conceit, repeating: “I am…” to build up a picture of all the different things brown children can be, do, eat and wear. “I am brown. I am beautiful. I am perfect… I am a doctor, a lawyer, an electrician.” Coupled with Sandhya Prabhat’s illustrations of children laughing and playing, which spill joyously from the pages, it’s a note-perfect hymn about acceptance, pride and belonging.
Through detailed drawings and smart, fun text, Jack Tite unpacks the life of everyone’s favourite Nordic raiders in Viking Voyagers (Big Picture). Foldout pages show huge panoramas of Viking life, including one epic drawing of a longboat. But it’s the fold-down flaps that steal the show. The best one depicts the moment when a metal-detecting 13-year-old and his teacher glimpse a shiny coin in the mud in Germany; lift up the flap, and you’ll see the glittering hoard they uncover. This may only be Tite’s second book, but he proves himself a master at bringing the past alive for young minds, and raises the game for children’s history authors.
• To order The Last Tree, The Song of the Tree, Would You Like a Banana, I Am Brown or Viking Voyagers go to guardianbookshop.com. Free UK p&p over £15
