Everything You Need for a Treehouse

Perhaps every child has dreamed of having a treehouse at some point. For many adults too, they symbolise escape from reality into a magical world of dreams and adventure. This richly illustrated picture book is a celebration of the pleasures of constructing a hide-out of your own, and being in a wild, wooded place with your friends.

llustrations include a wide range of children, of different ethnicities and physical capabilities, all playing together. The text is lyrical, and this puts the book into the category of one to read aloud.

When so many children do not have the luxury of trees to climb or green space around them, it felt, by the end of the book as if, despite all the beauty, it was a little too nostalgic and too removed from the realities of urban childhood. However, the final pages show a much more realistic back yard and a tiny tree in a pot, with children dreaming around it. The final message is about the power of imagination and aspiration, but younger children may need some help from an adult to fully grasp that.