The Tree with the Ear
‘Something happened today in gym class.’ A little boy is bursting to tell the big news that’s bubbling away inside him, but no one has time to listen to him.
A classic picture book with alluring illustrations full of glorious colours. An accessible story about being happy alone and together. The exuberant pictures by Sanne te Loo, full of flowers, birds, beach and sea, support and elevate the calm story. Happiness is sometimes already right under your nose — you just have to see it.
Annet Schaap has written a poetic story about the lack of attention that we have for one another, as a result of our busy lives. For this book, she dreamed up a tree that really does know how to listen. The illustrator Philip Hopman, who has sold over 350,000 books in the ‘Boer Boris’ picture book series, has created a setting based on Barcelona, in which the tree towers above everything else, vast in its sympathy. With brilliant lines and a flowing palette, he plants this imaginative story in a familiar world. This is a wonder- ful parable about our hectic society.
Annet Schaap (1965) studied at two art schools and a writers’ school before releasing her 2017 debut Lampje (Lampie), which won the Gouden Griffel, Woutertje Pieterse Prijs, Nienke van Hichtumprijs and the Flemish Boekenleeuw awards. Popular among children and adults alike and translated into 28 languages, the book was also made into a successful film adaptation by Juliet at Pupkin and VPRO. Lampie was followed by her picture book De boom met het oor and a collection of stories entitled De meisjes. Krekel, set in the world of Lampie, was released in 2025.