The Red Tree

This is a gorgeous picture book that depicts living with depression so beautifully. Whilst there is some text it’s the pictures that really do the story telling.

It’s beautiful illustrations manage to get across how dark, all encompassing and lonely it can feel when living with depression but offers a sweet hopeful ending that is a comfort to read. I have always loved this book and it will forever be one of my favourites.

I’ll be honest: The Red Tree is a book I’ve read countless times. It’s one of my favorite books. It might seem on the surface like a children’s book, as it has very few words and amazing illustrations, but it’s not.

It’s a book that seems like it’s about depression – a place “where darkness overcomes you” and the “world is a deaf machine” – but it’s not. It’s a book about hope. It’s about how hope is always there in the darkest of places, even when you think there is no hope left.

The illustrations are quintessential, as Shaun… show more.

I bought The Red Tree many years ago because I thought its cover was so beautiful. I didn't even know its author, but from then on he became one of my favorite illustrators. And even today, I can say that The Red Tree is my favorite book of all time. It may seem it's about sadness or depression, but I prefer to think that it's the book that best defines hope. It is a book that I usually give to my friends when they are having a hard time. Because in the end, it is about this: we cannot avoid… show more.