Picture books have a magic all of their own, be they a 'simple' picture book, or a sophisticated picture book. There will be a thoughts, deeper messages, carefully selected language and of course, beautifully crafted illustrations (which help the reader get better understanding, or in some cases challenge the reader to look beyond the obvious).
At book club a few weeks ago we did a philosophy session on Shaun Tan's book, The Red Tree. We looked at different types of questions and used the below quadrant, to help us look at the fertile ideas within the book (fertile because they get our ideas growing).
Question quadrant developed by Phil Cam.
These are some of the questions we came up with;
Why is it called the red tree?
Does this happen in real life?
What does the red tree mean?
Why does the red tree bring happiness to the character?
Have you had days like this?
What is your red tree?
Who are you 'meant' to be?
Why does time seem to go fast or slow?
What is the main focus?
Does the character always feel like this, or is it just one of those days?
Does the book have to have a main theme?
Is the theme different to different people?
Is it okay that there are good days, and bad days?
Who am I?
Why is darkness depicted as a fish?
Does this relate to anyone?
What is the book a metaphor for?
Why don't the pictures and text relate to each other?
Why do the words vary in size?
Why is the story so depressing in the beginning, and not at the end?
Did the author start writing this on a day he felt like this?
What is a deaf machine?
Why does she think, she isn't who she is?
Why call the book The Red Tree, when it barely talks about it?
Where are you, where do I stand?
Take the time to read The Red Tree by Shaun Tan, can you answer these questions?
Maybe even pose some of your own questions.
