Description Share Post My Heart Was a Tree Poems and Stories to Celebrate Trees Michael Morpurgo and Yuval Zommer (Two Hoots) ‘Once I crept in an oakwood- I was looking for a stag,/ I met an old woman there- all knobbly stick and rag./ She said, ‘I have your secret here inside my little bag,’ It seems that this poem, My Own True Family, from Ted Hughes, inspires Michael Morpurgo’s My Heart Was a Tree. After all, the writers were neighbours and the former children’s laureate now walks in the same bluebell woods as Hughes did. Thereafter, we dive into poems of trees, their history, individuality, stories and wonder. We journey through the lives of Driftwood, to the pride, downfall and hope of a Beech. We wonder at the blossom that might have inspired Vincent Van Gogh’s almond tree. Then again, a piece of prose takes us to the mango forests with the elephants, ‘thinking and dreaming’. We learn how fences won’t diminish this creature’s love of this treat- (rather like Farah Loves Mangos.) Furthermore, we stretch ‘not quite as high as the sky‘ with a lone giant redwood. Then again, the final piece is a recollection of a story concerning conkers and dogs. Bookwagon suggests that My Heart Was a Tree is a glorious gift, a collector’s item, a treasure to know and love and keep. We love this magnificent piece, with its wonderful stories and poems celebrated by Yuval Zommer’s exultant, insightful pictures. We recommend this book highly to our readers.
