Thea's tree by Alison Jackson illustrated by Janet Pedersen

 

Ms Rankin sets her students a free choice science project. Thea Teawinkle loves science. She finds a purple seed and decides to plant it in her garden in Topeka, Kansas. I have discovered (remember I am in Australia) that Topeka is the capital city of Kansas.

Thea is puzzled about the plant that emerges from her seed so she writes a letter to her teacher. Ms Rankin cannot help but she suggests Thea might contact an expert at the Topeka Horticultural Society.  This is the beginning of a series of letters written to all sorts of "experts" none of whom have an answer about this mysterious seed which is now a huge tree.

She writes to:

Bertram Beaman a botanist at the Horticultural Society; Anna Applebaum an arborealist at the Arboretum; Carl Capshaw curator at the Natural History Museum; Zoe Zimmerman zoologist at the Topeka Zoo; Ada Adler at the First Bank of Kansas. Look again at this list - every expert has an alliterative name and you might want to think about why she wrote to the zoo and the bank!

Odd things appear under the tree which grows taller than her house. She finds a golden egg, three gold pieces and a singing harp.  Can you guess what is going on?  Does it help if I describe the seed as a purple bean?

The discovery of this truly special book emphasises to me the absolute importance of libraries - public libraries and school libraries.  Thea's tree was published in 2008 so it is now out of print. Luckily I found a copy in a very well stocked school library. 

Save a spot on the shelves for this one  Kirkus

The best thing about Thea's Tree is the disconnect between Thea's experiences and the adult determination to categorize them properly, as everyone from botanists to bank managers weighs in on the plant and associated findings. Book Aunt

I do enjoy picture books written as letters. This form is called epistolary. I also love this book as a way to explore scientific methods and character voices. The illustrations are also perfect. Here are some other examples (spoiler alert) with Fairy Tale references:

One more thing - I am smiling an enormous smile of delight at the discovery that Janet Pedersen is the illustrator of one of my ALL time most favourite picture books - A friend like Ed.