Little tree

Little Tree brings together the quiet poem of E. E. Cummings and Chris Raschka’s unusual pictures. The words move slowly, almost like a soft chant, following a small evergreen from the forest into a family’s home.

Raschka paints with sharp shapes — triangles, squares, shifting patches of color. The tree, the ornaments, the lights all seem to be built out of pieces, like a puzzle forming on the page. This style gives the book a clear rhythm, different from the flow of the poem, but close enough to feel connected.

The meeting of the two creates space for the reader: the calm of the text, the energy of the pictures, and the silence between them.