The Apple Tree product reviews

Our household loves to read, my eldest child was already reading by the time she started school at 5, and her brothers have followed suit. I am always on the lookout for books that have a deeper meaning, but also being told in an age-appropriate way. When I saw this book "The Apple Tree" I was keen to find out how the author portrayed the topic towards a primary school aged child. I requested to receive a copy from KIWIreviews and thankfully was lucky enough to be chosen, after I am finished with the book it will be passed along to our small local primary school to add to their library.

What captured my attention straight away when I received the book was the stunning front cover, the illustrator has chosen colours which are vibrant and complimentary to each image, I loved how realistic the apple is and we see the apple tree as a large tree with plenty of fruit, on outstretching branches. I did a quick skim through the pages before reading and noticed that the remainder of the images were all equally as detailed as the cover and had the same vibrancy to them.

When it was time to start to read, we noticed initially that the story had been broken down into four different parts, each one of these parts was a different season of the year, starting with Part 1 ; Spring. The author Steven Moe has written this story from the perspective of the apple tree, we are introduced to the little boy and his grandmother, they were the people that had planted the seed on the riverbank from which the tree grew, and the boy as he grew older would come back to the tree and talk to it, but also care for it by pruning it, however as time went by the boy grew into a man, and then came back and cut a branch off and made a walking stick, however the branch he cut off determined which way the tree would grow, and where it's ripe fruit would eventually fall - in to the water below. The tree was full of resentment towards the man and felt bitter about it's fruit simply being washed away, however what the tree didn't realize was that it's dropped fruit then went on to grow more trees further on down the river.

I quite enjoyed this story, and it did open up my youngest children into having a broader conversation relating to how we choose to perceive a situation that we may be faced with especially if we do not know all of the facts. Overall, I think this is a wonderful book, and I am sure many, many children will enjoy it in the future.