This children's story - told in a picture book format - focuses on a tree which is struck by lightning during a storm. A woodsman discovers the broken tree and saws it down to its stump. Then one by one, a beetle, ants, a bear, a titmouse, a frog and an earwig make the stump their own...The book (originally published in Russian in 1983 as "Chei Eto Pen?") gently talks to children about the cycle of life... At the end of the story, a new tree grows and takes place of the old tree that was gone...
Written by Natalia Romanova and beautifully illustrated by award-winning artist Gennady Spirin. His illustrations for this book were called "stirringly beautiful" by the New York Times.
In English language. For children age 3 to 10.
Publisher: Puffin Books, USA. Softcover. 32 pages.
