Bianca with Aaron Becker on The Tree and the River

The Children's Book Review: Growing Readers Podcast

In this episode, we have the master of wordless picture books, Caldecott Honor–winning Aaron Becker. He talks about his stunner of a book, The Tree and the River.

Aaron Becker is the best-selling author of the award-winning Journey trilogy, along with several other books for children young and old. His love of travel led him to the city of Granada, Spain, where a rich history of layered civilizations inspired him to write The Tree and the River. To prepare for the story's illustrations, he first constructed a scale model of the book's rolling landscape, which he then slowly transformed with clay and wood over many months. When he’s not home with his wife and two daughters, Aaron Becker can be found creating something new in his studio in western Massachusetts.

Transcription:

You can read the transcription on ⁠The Children's Book Review.

Order copies:

The Tree and the River on ⁠Bookshop.org⁠ and ⁠Amazon.

Resources:

Learn more about Aaron Becker here: https://www.storybreathing.com.

Discussion Topics:

• What guides and drives Aaron Becker in creating books for children.
• Thoughts on staying true to his vision.
• Aaron's seed of inspiration for The Tree and the River.
• Finding a thread of storyline in this wordless picture book.
• Creating the picture book illustrations.
• Something surprising that readers may notice.
• The underlying theme of climate change angst.
• Hope