The Last Tree: Emily Haworth-Booth

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A group of friends live happily in the forest until they decide to begin cutting down the trees to build homes and, ultimately, a huge wall. Then, living in the shadow of the wall, their friendship begins to fall apart. Change only happens when their children discover the last living tree and the joy of playing beside it. They decide to take matters into their own hands and ultimately help the adults realise that by protecting their environment they'll look after their community too.

This book would be wonderful for generating discussion on the themes of taking care of our environment, working together, community and friendship. It also highlights the power children can have and use when they are given the opportunity to do so. As they cut down the trees, the forest becomes thinner, until there is just one last tree standing. They took the wall down, planted seeds and tended the saplings. They talked and sang, and as their children grew, a new forest grew with them. Once upon a time a group of friends were seeking a place to call home. The desert was too hot, the valley was too wet and the mountain was too windy.

The Last Tree” is an ecological fable for children. The story begins when a group of friends look for a place to live and settle in a forest. The children talked to their parents about the tree and how it made them feel, but their parents wouldn’t listen. To satisfy their parents’ desire for more wood, the children secretly cut down boards from the wall and brought them to their parents.

A group of friends make their home in a forest. After years of happiness, the community begins to build houses and walls. Soon the adults are not curious about the world beyond. Can the children save the last tree?

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But when the children crept out beyond the wall and found one another by the little tree, they laughed and played. They tended the tree, and each day it grew taller and prouder. Then they found the forest. It was perfect. The leaves gave shelter from the sun and rain, and a gentle breeze wound through the branches. A group of families and friends traveled from a hot land to a land that was lush and greend and filled with trees. When winter arrived they chopped trees and built houses. When spring came the winds whipped through and they decided to chop trees to build a wall to protect them from the gusts. As a result there was no play or happy times, only the wall. The families that were friends became distant and unhappy. The children would sneak out beyond the wall and play and watch over the last tree. They gathered its seeds and planted more trees. Slowly the children began to break down the wall. What do you think the families and friends discovered? When summer returned, the sun was hot but there weren’t enough trees for shade. The people cut down more branches to make porches. When they heard their children playing by the tree and saw how the cool wind twisted gently though the tree’s branches, they remembered how things used to be. Suddenly, they understood what they had done wrong and decided to try to begin again.