Book Descriptions
for The Tree is Older Than You Are by Naomi Shihab Nye
From Cooperative Children's Book Center (CCBC)
Leticia Tarragó's intriguing cover art shows scarlet fish with wheels on two fins, a propeller on the third, and a child riding on its back in a terrain inhabited by a cat, a pair of giraffes and two moons. The inviting jacket leads readers or browsers into a handsome volume introducing more than 100 poems and other writings, including five folktales and 24 full-color art reproductions. Separate indexes of English language and Spanish language titles help readers locate poems, while a third index cites the writers and artists. Biographical information is provided for them and for the translators. The title of this lovely, unique anthology originates in the poem "The Lemon Tree" (Árbol de limón) by Jennifer Clement from Mexico City. "...Remember / the tree is older than you are / and you might find stories / in its branches." (Age 8 - adult)
CCBC Choices 1995. © Cooperative Children's Book Center, Univ. of Wisconsin - Madison, 1995. Used with permission.
From the Publisher
A beautiful collection of bilingual poems and stories from Mexico, paired with paintings by Mexican artists.
“Remember, the tree is older than you are and you might find stories in its branches.”
So begins this wondrous collection of poems and stories from Mexico that invites us to imagine a car as sweet as strawberry ice cream, skin that kisses air and breeze-waving hair, a rabbit with little ears, a frog that runs instead of hops, and taxis filled with ghosts. Richly colored paintings interspersed throughout express not just the meaning of the words, but the magic within them.
“Remember, the tree is older than you are and you might find stories in its branches.”
So begins this wondrous collection of poems and stories from Mexico that invites us to imagine a car as sweet as strawberry ice cream, skin that kisses air and breeze-waving hair, a rabbit with little ears, a frog that runs instead of hops, and taxis filled with ghosts. Richly colored paintings interspersed throughout express not just the meaning of the words, but the magic within them.
Publisher description retrieved from Google Books.