cover image Mary Margarets Tree

Mary Margarets Tree

Blair Drawson. Scholastic, $15.95 (0pp) ISBN 978-0-531-09521-8

This unpredictable fantasy of a girl's adventures in a tree is illustrated in a style that suggests Grandma Moses on hallucinogens: hazy-looking acrylic paintings combine the naive flatness common to folk art with surreal distortions. After planting a tree, Mary Margaret, an unidealized redhead with large glasses, shrinks to the size of a flower. She climbs up into the branches, where all kinds of fruit grow together and the insects are as large as the birds. She stays through summer and fall, then hibernates for winter in a communal cave. Drawson's warm-toned painting of the child cozied up with a bear, a leopard and various smaller animals exemplifies his alogical vision of natural harmony. When spring comes, Mary Margaret herself sprouts roots and becomes a tree--that is, until her mother calls her in for dinner. Although the prose is commonplace (""It was green, green, green among the leaves!""), this unusual story about the seasons offers images memorable for their curious plays on size and perspective, and for their madcap celebration of nature. Ages 4-7. (Sept.)