Children's & YA
December 2018
The Tree Boy
by Srididhya Venkat and Nayantara Surendranath
Sid is a lonely boy who detests idle, lonely trees. He has good reasons though. At least he likes to think so. He does not notice the friendship between the dangling leaves, dancing to the song of the wind. He ignores countless birds returning to the safety of their comfy homes, nestled in the soft spots of rough branches, after a long day of collecting worms. So when he is called a brainless tree for missing a save in soccer at school, it is easy for him to decide he never wants to be a tree, until one morning he wakes up to have transformed into one. Srividhya Venkat spins a delectable fantasy around thinking twice about what you wish for, or not and depicts the transformation of Sid’s lonely life after he embraces the excitable voices of kids twisted in his vines and the ecosystem hovering above him. Nayantara Surendranath’s eccentric combination of art collage and digital creation expresses the refreshing quirks that breathe life into the tale.
