The Grandad Tree by Trish Cooke
Leigh's brother, Vin, told her that, like their apple tree, "which grew from a seed", granddad was a baby once. As a boy in Jamaica, he went to school and climbed trees. As a man he was a husband for Gran, a father to mum and then a Grandfather to them. "That's life", he told them. Through the changing seasons he was with them beneath that tree, with his violin, playing with them and for them. Things change, things die, like people - like grandad. But memory can keep them alive.
They planted a seed beside their "grandad tree". When they are sad, instead of crying, they water the seed. "It will grow", says the narrator, "it will change – and they'll love it for ever."
Len Goldman
Other childrens' books on trees:
Aani and the tree huggers by Jeannine Atkins
The Tin Forest by Helen Ward and Wayne Anderson
The Cherry Tree by Ruskin Bond
Zora Hurston and the Chinaberry Tree By William Miller