One major task for the children’s storyteller: Getting parents out of the story. Children need to be the drivers of their own narratives. Storytellers have come up with many ways of getting adult helpers and caregivers out of the way.
Here’s another: Give the child a home of their own. Within the world of the story, this play home may function as the permanent home. Or it may be a temporary construction with the safety of real home nearby. Doesn’t matter.
Ships and boats are also useful as second homes. They often end up on islands, where the child is free to do exactly as they wish for a little while before returning home. See Where The Wild Things Are.
Or perhaps the children go camping and pitch a tent. This might be in the back yard.
Scene from Bluey, made in Australia, a series all about having fun at home, dealing with emotions, suffering through rifts and making up.
Then there are forts.
Kids begin to build forts indoors around age 4, Sobel found, then start venturing outside around age 6 or 7 to construct dens, treehouses and other fort-like structures more independently, a practice that continues into their tweens. Metaphorically and physically, building forts reflects children’s growth as individuals, Sobel says; they create a “home away from home,” free from parental control. Forts also foster creativity.
When Lulu’s feeling well, she climbs every tree in sight, especially the tallest ones, the ones with the widest branches, the ones with the stickiest sap.
But when Lulu’s sick, she’s not allowed outside. She wonders if the trees are lonely without her. Maybe the birds are too.
Without Lulu, nobody climbs the trees but the sun. . . which casts a shadow on Lulu’s wall. . . for her to climb.
1964 THE VERY PRIVATE TREEHOUSE written and illustrated by Harvey Weiss
TREE HOUSES
Breakout by Kate Messner cover image
When you think of a tree house you likely conjure the image of a tiny house up in the branches. And these kinds of tree houses are common in children’s stories. Tree houses built around the base of tree trunks, and inside them, are also surprisingly popular, perhaps ever since apes came down from the trees and realised tree bases look disturbingly like feet. (See Baba Yaga.) There are many ways of living in (or below) a tree.
The Tip-Top Tree House Daisy Tucker Whitman Tell-a-Tale Book 1969
HOLES AND HOLLOWS IN THE TRUNK
a different style from Adrienne Segur. Thumbkin from the Fairy Tale Book, 1958Delphine DurandJerzy Karolak, Elementarz Wiewioreczki, 1963Marco SomàRichard ScarryErnest Howard Shepard (1879-1976), from Winnie The Pooh
BIRD HOUSES HANGING OFF TREES
Kodomo no kuni (“Children’s Land”), 1922–30Fritz Baumgarten 1886-1961Fritz Baumgarten, Feesten in kabouterland, 1980Jane Werner (1914-2005) and Cornelius De Witt (1925-1970) collaborated and produced this 1949 book called- Words How They Look and What They Tell
HOUSES BUILT IN THE BOUGHS
Benjamin ChaudArnold Lobel, Miss Suzy, 1964Doris Susan Smith, Need a House Call Ms. Mouse, 1981Janusz StannyFrom The Tall Book of Make Believe Selected by Jane Werner Pictures by Garth Williams 1950Garth Williams illustrated this Giant Golden Book of Elves and Fairies 1951Carl Strathmann The Stork Tree 1890sThe Christmas Party by Adrienne Adams, 1978Doris Burn’s ‘Andrew Henry’s Meadow’
See also
The Monster Next Door by David Soman. A boy lives in a tree house. (Parents are never on the page.) On the recto side of the spreads, we see a purple monster has moved in next door. The two become friends, have an argument and become friends again. This story models how to repair a relationship.
The Treehouse series by Andy Griffiths and Terry Denton are super popular bestsellers here in Australia.
HOUSES BUILT AROUND THE BASE OF TREES
illustrator of the Toby Twirl books was the British artist Edward Jeffrey from Durham, 1898 -1978From 1949 edition of Childcraft Books Milo Winter illustrator1950, Little Golden Book, Richard Scarry, The Animals Merry Christmas tree houseJill Barklem (1951 – 2017) Brambly hedgeThis preliminary sketch for Spring Story, c. 1980, by Jill Barklem reminds me of E.H. Shepherd’s finished works in Winnie the Pooh.Ocke, Nutta och Pillerill, Elsa Beskow 1939Ocke, Nutta och Pillerill, Elsa Beskow 1939Ocke, Nutta och Pillerill, Elsa Beskow 1939Ocke, Nutta och Pillerill, Elsa Beskow 1939Ocke, Nutta och Pillerill, Elsa Beskow 1939Antonio Lupatelli, pseudonym Tony WolfBoris Diodorov, Winnie the PoohNatalia Trepenok, Russian folk talesMarco SomàGoodnight by Pixie O’Harris, 1957DE NACHTMANNETJES (1946) Eetie van ReesMarije Tolman, De boomhutTrygve M. Davidsen (1895-1978) Tomten and Treehouse
VIEWS INSIDE THE TRUNK
Marla Frazee tree house illustration for Starsfrom a Polish children’s book of the 1950sRichard ScarrySophie Blackall, The Crows of PearblossomGustaf Tenggren, Stories From a Magic World, 1938 John Anster Christian Fitzgerald (UK, 1819-1906), The Captive Robin, 1864The Tale of the root children by Sibylle of OlfersThe Tale of the root children by Sibylle of OlfersThe Tale of the root children by Sibylle of OlfersThe Tale of the root children by Sibylle of Olfers
OTHER TREE HOUSE REPRESENTATIONS
David Weidman’s Bird Tree from 1965Vintage German postcardCats of the Floating World an illustrated book from TaiwanTerry FanElsa BeskowMattias Adolfssonillustration is from the story entitled The Distressing Tale of Thangobrind the Jeweller, and of the Doom that Befell Him from The Book of Wonder by Lord Dunsany, illustration by Sidney Herbert Syme, 1912
HOUSES INSIDE FRUIT
Kathleen LolleyKestutis Kasparavicius
Andrew Henry’s Meadow written and illustrated by Doris Burn
Richard Doyle The Fairy Tree c. 1865The book of wonder, a chronicle of little adventures at the edge of the world ca.1915 by Lord Dunsany illustrated by Sidney Herbert Simefrom the Dragonlance SagaVernon Thomas 1935
Header illustration: No Girls Allowed by Stevan Dohanos
