One Thousand Trees

One Thousand Trees by Kyle Hughes-Odgers (Fremantle Press) HB RRP $24.99

ISBN 9781925164725

Reviewed by Teena Raffa-Mulligan

Award-winning artist Kyle Hughes-Odgers’ latest release is a deceptively simple picture book that takes readers on a wonderful journey of discovery through its beautifully designed pages.

Hughes-Odgers combines minimal text with stylised illustrations in translucent watercolour. The muted palette brings a gentle dreamlike quality to the images which have strong elements of pattern.

Deep in the heart of the city, Frankie dreams of a thousand trees and how it feels to be beneath them, beside them, above them, atop them…

My favourite illustrations are those for ‘around’ and ‘beside’, with Frankie embracing the trunk of a tree.

Hughes-Odgers has held exhibitions and has created public art throughout Australia and internationally. He won a Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators Crystal Kite Award for his debut picture book, Ten Tiny Things, written by Meg McKinlay, and was shortlisted for the inaugural Frankfurt Book Fair’s Global Illustration Prize in 2016.

Young readers aged two to eight will find plenty to delight them in One Thousand Trees; however its appeal is not limited to children. It is a book that begs rereading and each time I returned to it, the story took me deeper.

It would be a wonderful addition to the home or school library and is sure to inspire discussion about art, nature and this world we share. Teaching notes are available from www.fremantlepress.com.au