Lily and Amanda Smart are lucky girls. They live in a tall house made of purple bricks, and every day they get to walk to school through a park filled with beautiful trees. Their favourite tree is the Giggle Gum, and they look forward to playing in it.
But not everyone likes the Giggle Gum because it has overgrown a pathway nearby. Some people complain, and soon the Tree Police put up a sign saying the Giggle Gum Tree is going to be cut down.
Afraid they’ll lose their leafy friend, Lily and Amanda come up with a plan to save it. But will it be too late?
The Giggle Gum Tree was launched in Warrnambool, Victoria by Paul Jennings, one of Australia’s best known authors of children’s books.
IP (Interactive Publications Pty Ltd)
Juliet Williams’ first picture book tells the unusual story of how two girls galvanise a community to save their favourite gum tree from being removed by the tree police. On Lily and Amanda’s journey to school they pass under a tree with ‘long swishy branches and … feathery leaves’. This tree has such an effect on the girls that they are ‘giggling gerties’, always happy to do their chores and keen to learn. However, others find the tree troublesome and the tree is due for removal until the girls convince the townsfolk to build a path around the tree with the bricks from their too tall house.
Elizabeth Botte’s illustrations captured the attention of my daughter who marvelled at the colours employed in the spreads and she particularly liked ‘the faces’. The illustrations fill the page and there is no white space. Younger readers may prefer a larger font size as the text is quite small.
Wlliams is donating proceeds from the book’s first
print run to Community Connections. Teacher’s notes are available from the IP website.”
– Donna Austin, Buzzwords