High in The Old Oak Tree
‘High in The Old Oak Tree’ is an illustrated picture-book-poem all about a boy who spends his whole life in an oak tree.
The book shows what an old oak tree is really like if you take the time to discover its secrets: wolves hide in its branches, you can touch the moon from the top, and there’s a vast sea of tears sighing under its roots.
It’s for anyone who loves trees and likes to take a moment out of the busyness of life to daydream.
This is the favourite book I’ve ever made and I go back and look at it a lot.
The book measures 15 x 21 cm and has 32 fully illustrated pages and a hand printed silver moon on the cover. It costs £6. To purchase please click below:
Some more images from the book:
The poem has strong rhythm, rhyme, and repetition that can be happily turned into actions with children.
Quite a few schools have used my poems like this.
Here’s an extract:
“In the dancing shade of the high oak tree
I climbed through the afternoon,
I made my bed in its strong arms
Beneath the silver moon.
Bright distant silver moon.
I woke with the sun in the bright oak tree,
To see drifting clouds below,
I walked I sang I banged my stick,
And forgot to go home.
Happy on my own.”
The book was inspired by the huge oak trees at Pestalozzi International Village, where I often camped with my family on Woodcraft Folk camps. I made up a version of the story while I was camping there one Summer. It slowly turned into the poem that appears in the book over a couple of years.
