The Red Tree is a touching book with a message of hope that can provide almost endless opportunities for talking and writing. It’s a powerful book for upper KS2.

The author tells the story mostly through the beautiful and strange illustrations and one long poetic sentence that continues through the text.

The Red Tree conveys the complexity of emotions and thoughts one can experience on a day that feels hopeless, but which ends with a message of hope in the red tree of the title.

Personal responses, extraction of main ideas and development of imagery, symbolism and vocabulary are key reading skills to focus on with this text. It’s also ideal for a thematic project linking PSHE, art, music and ICT.

Carol Satterthwaite is an independent literacy consultant and a former senior literacy consultant for the Primary National Strategy. She designs and leads communication, language and literacy projects with networks of schools and for local authorities.

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