Book Review for The Shade Tree by Suzy Lee
Bibliography
Lee, S. 2023. The shade tree. Greystone Kids. ISBN: 9781778400186
Plot Summary
In this folk tale we follow a young villager who comes across a beautiful shade tree. The traveler and the villagers love to sit in the shade of the tree. Until a rich man comes and says the shade belongs to him because the tree is on his land. The young traveler comes up with a plan and asks the rich man to buy the shade from him. The rich man accepts not realizing that the shade from the tree only gets longer and longer, eventually going into his own home. The young traveler takes advantage of the shade and eventually makes the rich man realize his mistake and moves away from the shade tree. The young traveler enjoys his new home and shares the shade with all the villagers.
Critical Analysis
The characters in the story are mainly three people, a young traveler, the villagers, and a rich man. The author doesn’t go into detail about each character, but you can get the different personality traits as the story goes along. The young traveler is smart, kind, and clever while the rich man is greedy and rude. This book is more of a fable and doesn’t go into details about the culture of the characters. You can tell it is a culture that has villagers, and the book was translated from a Korean folk tale. This is a classic tale of good versus evil and how being kind makes your life happier. The setting isn’t described in too much detail, but you can tell it takes place on open land with a village nearby. Cultural details are sparce in this story as it is more of a life lesson than a story about culture. You can get some of the culture from the illustrations, the characters are painted black, but you can see long braided hair, hats, and dresses in the details. This story makes the reader think about their life choices and how they can become more like the young traveler and embrace life by jumping, running, and being happy. It also shows us that being wealthy may not make us happy. The illustrations are vibrant, and the tree is the main focal point.
Review Excerpt(s)
“The soothing cadence of the story paired with the simple but beautiful illustrations and amusing ending make for a calming and satisfying read, translated from Korean and reformatted for a North American audience. A gorgeous fable celebrating generosity and wit.”
—Kirkus, STARRED review
Suzy Lee is a 2022 Hans Christian Andersen Award winner
Connections
* I would have students compare this folk tale to another folk tale from another culture and compare how they are similar and different.
* Younger students can think of a time when they were kind, and it made them feel good with the class in a think-pair-share.
Comments
Post a Comment