The Red Tree by Shaun Tan. Verona, NJ: Simply Read Books, 2003.
ISBN 978-0968876831
TOP TEN
Emotions are not always happy ones, and this story helps children realize that some days are sad days, but good days are usually behind them.
Media: Mixed Media
Q5/P4
5-8th
Curricular Connection: Health, Language Arts.
LESSON PLAN II:
LEVEL AND RESOURCES
One hour/period
Curricular Connection: Health, Language Arts
5-6th
The Red Tree by Shaun Tan.
A copy of the text for each group.
Art Supplies (paper and paints, etc.)
OBJECTIVES
Ø Students will gain an understanding about emotions.
Ø Students will be able to identify literary devices.
Ø Students will better be able to express their emotions.
BACKGROUND
Discuss various types of emotions with the students and how they make them feel. Discuss style of illustrations. Read the book out loud to the students. Introduce some of the literary devices found throughout the book (metaphor, simile and symbolism are the main ones).
.
BOOK DISCUSSION
In the book, the girl is having a bad day, which images do the best job at conveying that emotion to you?
Describe how you think the girl is feeling in the pages where she is on the ladder? How do the images convey those feelings?
On the last page, the feelings change, how does the color of the tree convey that?
IN CLASS ASSIGNMENT
Ø Students break into groups of three or four and must search through the text of for literary devices, write them down and each group chooses one to present to class.
Ø Have the students paint how they feel today. Ask them to use color, shapes and words if they like to convey their emotions. Have each student share their painting.
D. Balestreri added to PB 7/25/09
Tan, S. (2003). The red tree. Vancouver, BC: Simply Read Books.
Top 10
ISBN: 0968876838
Illustrator: Tan, S.
Media: Mixed Media
5Q/4P
Theme: In despair lies hope.
Annotation: A small girl wakes to find herself “with nothing to look forward to” and goes about her day feeling lonely, sad and haunted until hope finally presents itself at the end.
Art Analysis:
Inspired by renowned picture book illustrator, Chris Van Allsburg, Shaun Tan’s The Red Tree is as visually evocative as Van Allsburg’s The Mysteries of Harris Burdick. Appropriately so, as Tan writes on his website:
The Red Tree began an experimental narrative more than anything else: the idea of a book without a story. I've always loved Chris Van Allsburg's classic picture book ‘The Mysteries of Harris Burdick’ (1984) which is a great example of word-picture enigmas, exhibiting partial fragments of unknown stories and leaving the reader to use their imagination. It has no sequential narrative, which is something a picture book is ideal for – you can open it at any page, go backwards or forwards, and spend as much time as you wish with each image. (http://www.shauntan.net/books.html)
Also, akin to Van Allsburg’s repeated inclusion of a bull-terrier named Fritz in each of his stories, Tan includes one small maple leaf in each of his illustrations for The Red Tree. This elicits a joyful sort of hide-and-seek interaction between the reader and the illustrator, encourages the reader to take a closer look and creates a sense of unity from picture to picture.
First Inspired by one of the greats, Shaun Tan has now become one of the greats; The Red Tree illustrates this beautifully.
5.18.08 cjm
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