The Red Tree

Shaun Tan's fifth book. From the artist: The Red Tree is a story presented as a series of distinct imaginary worlds, self-contained images which invite readers to draw their own meaning in the absence of any explanatory narrative. As a concept, the book is inspired by the impulse of children and adults alike to describe feelings using metaphor - monsters, storms, sunshine, rainbows and so on. Moving beyond cliché, I wanted to paint images that would further explore the expressive possibilities of this kind of shared imagination, which could be at once strange and familiar. A nameless young girl appears in every picture, a stand-in for ourselves; she passes helplessly through many dark moments, yet ultimately finds something hopeful at the end of her journey. The Red Tree won the Patricia Wrightson prize in the NSW Premier's Book Awards, and was awarded the 'le Prix Octogones 2003' prize by the Centre International d'Etudes en Litterature de Jeunesse, following it's translation into French.