A girl hunkers down in a school library.
It’s a quiet space most of the time. The more time she spends there, the more she sees the forest around her. The shelves, the tables, the floor, are all made of wood.
Different types of wood with different tones and hardness’ to withstand the words scratched into them. On the shelves each page in each book has come from a tree.
There was another forest – long before. Another girl named Daphne is also hiding from others, fleeing from one in particular. He is persistent, urgent, never ending – under a curse of love. He will never give up, but neither will she. She has one chance to escape. A chance to become something other. Something strong and able to withstand much – a tree.
The ‘library Daphne’ clutches her phone and ducks her head away from anyone else trying to engage. Focusing on the words in her ear buds, not the librarian or other students. Again, and again and again. Screens are another escape. Gaming gives her a way to block out the world.
Her mind spins of home, and loss and a mother also trying to cope. Anger, frustration, loss, and guilt fill ‘library Daphne.’ Will it ever end. Can she ever feel whole again without the man who loved trees. He helped them, cut them when he had to, and shared this love with his daughter. But now… he is gone.
This title intrigued me and after appearing on the CILIP Carnegie Medal Shortlist, I knew it had to be something special. This looks like a verse novel in the normal sense, but is not. Just like it says on the cover, The Girl Who Became a Tree is a story told in poems. The poetry is not to be rushed, even though I wanted to know why this girl was hiding from the world.
The poetry is ripe for further time to be taken, and class study. (See a study or further reflection link below). It is to be savoured and understood. I’m not a poetry fan per se, but constantly found myself saying ‘Wow’ out loud.
Another story weaves between the lines – an ancient story of a girl fleeing the attention of another. Daphne, Cupid and Apollo star in this Greek Gods story, and I found the connection between that story and the present, fascinating. Check out that story to get even more from this beautiful book.
Author – Joseph Coelho
Illustrator – Kate Milner
Age – 12+
Resources for The Girl Who Became a Tree here
(2023, Walker Books, Shorlisted Cilip Carnegie Medal, Award, Grief, Anger, Guilt, School Library, Loss of Libraries, Wood, Forests, Librarian, Father, Arborist, Escape, Gaming, Screens, Fleeing, Death, Poems, Poetry, Love, Conflict, Verse)