Rating: 
Summary: Quality book - from the message to the paper...
Review: ...and everything in between! I write and publish picture books, so I look at the quality of the book from every angle. Not only is it a touching message, but the simple text along with the complex and piercing illustrations takes your breath away. I have a rapport with the book buyer at my local independent store and when I walked in, she just handed me "The Red Tree" and said, "You have to read this." She was right. I've read it many times and each of the many people I've shown it to has been awed. I wouldn't just give this book to any ol' kid, but many sensitive children would treasure this book forever...and it would make a particularly nice gift for an adult, too!
Rating:
Summary: Quality book - from the message to the paper...
Review: ...and everything in between! I write and publish picture books, so I look at the quality of the book from every angle. Not only is it a touching message, but the simple text along with the complex and piercing illustrations takes your breath away. I have a rapport with the book buyer at my local independent store and when I walked in, she just handed me "The Red Tree" and said, "You have to read this." She was right. I've read it many times and each of the many people I've shown it to has been awed. I wouldn't just give this book to any ol' kid, but many sensitive children would treasure this book forever...and it would make a particularly nice gift for an adult, too!
Rating:
Summary: The Greatest Picture Book Ever
Review: A friend introduced me to this book a while ago, and instantly fell in love with it. I haven't ever felt so connected to a book in my entire life. It would be one of the greatest books I have ever read. Definately a book for all ages, for you can read, and analyse it on so many levels. You deffinatley have to buy this book. The most perfect illustrations I have ever seen. If you have a heart this is guarenteed to make you feel great emotions. After countless reads, it still brings tears to my eyes. So much sadness, yet so much happiness.
Rating:
Summary: Amazing illustrations that make you feel
Review: A very nice book. Very simple and yet leave you a lot of room
for imaginations. I just love the illustrations and I can look
at those pictures again and again. It's a book not just for kids,
it's actually more for adults I think. You can apply the little
story to a lot of things and it's that universal. I felt pretty
good after I read the book.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent book illustrating depression
Review: As someone who has anxiety and chronic depression, the pictures in this book express the reality of my feelings. I can now open up to a certain page and tell my husband, "I feel just like this picture," and he begins to understand. The pictures portray feelings and emotions superbly. The text helps a bit by getting your mind thinking about what emotions are being shown in the illustration. If you are someone with depression, or know someone with depression, this book can help with the communication that words sometimes can't explain.
Rating:
Summary: Shaun Tan's Red Tree powerful
Review: First I would like to say 'read' is a bit too strong a word for what amount's to a picture book with a sentence on each page.
So having looked at this book a few times, (more than once because I couldn't quite believe what I was seeing) I have to say that I was shocked at it's thoroughly depressing content.
It might work for an already mentally disturbed child in a 'light at the end of tunnel' kind of way. But what on earth a regular happy-go-lucky kid would experience from looking at this book is beyond me, apart from nightmares that is.
When a child is shown this book the first question is going
to be what is depression? Depression being a concept that should be as unfamiliar to children as tax returns or hangovers. So I cannot understand why anyone would consider this a book to 'entertain' children.
Rating:
Summary: The Red Tree - The Black Day
Review: Having gazed in awe for hours over Shaun Tan's previous books (which could be simply 'read' in minutes), I have been drawn to giggles, tears and several art-history references.Shaun's tackled a difficult subject here in childhood depression. He's managed to handle it in such a way that kids who have just had a bad 'moment', and kids that are really having a terrible extended period of time, will not feel alone in their sadness and problems, and will ultimately, hopefully, feel uplifted. Shauns words and images do not talk down to kids in any way. The images are mostly complex, dark, brooding - and filled with enough detail to entrance on many repeat readings.
His settings are otherworldly enough to keep up the sense of mystery and distance, but familiar enough to have the reader feel connected with the central figure - a little girl who is sad, feeling left-out and confused.
For young children, It's probably a book best kept for one of those 'moments', and read with an understanding parent or older friend.
For older kids and adults, it's a great book for a cheer-up on a bad day.
...and for anyone with an appreciation of art, get this and the rest of Shaun's back-catalogue - in hardback if you can, and treasure them.
Rating:
Summary: Made my day
Review: I just got this book today and have gone through it at least 10 times. (Yes, I know children's books are short, but I DO have a short attention span!) The pictures are incredible, and the simple "story" (short captions for the pictures) is quite moving. I'm planning to give it to all my friends for the holidays this year... and it's only May!
Rating:
Summary: Shaun Tan's Red Tree powerful
Review: The Red Tree has become a powerful symbol in our family for hope and strong positive feelings. We've been to the Out of the Box festival in Brisbane, Queensland where the play of the book premiered, and it is true to the story and concepts Shaun Tan was painting. His detailed imagery provides hours of enjoyment for young readers and old to explore their feelings, their reactions. His illustrations cater to the thinking child who doesn't need everything handed to them on a plate in primary colours. We look forward to more from Shaun Tan.
Rating:
Summary: Lyrical and Powerful
Review: What a tremendous book ... although it's right to expect something truly special from Australia's best picture book illustrator. The text of the book is deceptively simple, and perfectly economical. Its true power is revealled by the images, which are haunting and unforgettable. Although feelings of depression and loneliness strike us all, Tan has found a note-perfect way to depict complex and dark emotions. I've heard (and used) many analogies for the darkness that accompanies depression, but when you see Tan's images, everything else will fall short. So with such themes of darkness, does the book soar? Definitely! The conclusion is unaffected and uplifting, reminiscent of the Australian writer and illustrator Michael Leunig. I cannot, in all honesty, think of any life, at any age, that would not be enriched by this simple, lyrical and moving book. Highly recommended.
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