The Dream Tree

One of the earlier Serendipity books (1974), this one left me feeling somewhat unsatisfied. I understand that it is a children's picture book, aimed at the 3-5 year old market, but how can a caterpillar's mother also be a caterpillar? Also, there was no clear moral message.

(From Wikipedia, this is the moral: Though it is sometimes hard to wait, growing up comes soon enough.)

The illustrations are no less charming, however, with the butterflies appearing very stylised and the colours nice and bright. The trees, in particular, James renders very well, and I shall have to use his works for inspiration on the details of trees of my own. And the writing style is still colourful and playful - "Leaves were her favourite things to writtgle over show more because they always tickled her tummy." show less

The words were interesting and very descriptive while the illustrations were a bit on an unequal part some of the other of the series.

The main things that threw me on this book was the fact that her mother was a caterpillar while it never said when she would change. And I also didn't like the fact that she said that she would tell all her friends after she became a butterfly what happened after the change but when she did she actually turned away the first caterpillar to ask her. You would think she may have said something to soothe the caterpillar instead of making him wonder.