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Macmillan Children’s Books has scooped two picture books from Sir Michael Morpurgo and illustrated by Yuval Zommer, beginning with the “thought-provoking” My Heart Was a Tree.
Associate publisher Penny Morris acquired world rights for the text from Veronique Baxter at David Higham Associates and Zommer’s illustrations were acquired through Caroline Sheldon at Caroline Sheldon Literary Agency. My Heart Was a Tree will be published in spring 2023.
“This book was pure joy to work on, combining as it does two of my passions: poetry, by one of our greatest writers, and trees,” said Zommer. “Trees were always an integral part of my childhood. I was the child that used to climb up trees, pick fruit directly from trees, play and read under the shelter of trees. To this day when I look at the veins in a tree leaf I am reminded of our intrinsic connections to nature.”
The title of the picture book is taken from Ted Hughes’ poem “My Own True Family” and is used with permission from Hughes’ widow. My Heart Was a Tree is a “beautifully layered, thought-provoking and imaginative” collection of poems and short stories about trees, showing their lives and the lives of the animals around them. With a strong conservation theme, Morpurgo recounts ancient tales such as Odysseus’ return to Penelope narrated by an olive tree, the autobiography of a chair, a journey from an acorn to mighty oak to part of a ship and a “poetic plea from the earth’s four trillion trees, asking humankind to understand how vitally important trees are to our survival”.
Morris commented: “Working on this book with Michael and Yuval has been an absolute dream – their passion for the subject matter comes through on every page of this wonderful book and I am thrilled to have it on my list.”
Morpurgo added: “The poems and stories in this book have been written because, every day that I can, I go for a walk in the bluebell woods behind our house. I know every one of the trees I pass. They hear me coming, they listen to me. I listen to them, to the whisper of them, the roaring of them, the creaking of them. There is one poem above all others for me that tells more powerfully of trees than any other I know: ‘My Own True Family’ by Ted Hughes. The great poet who wrote it walked through my bluebell woods, touched the same trees, listened to them, wrote for them. It is his spirit and his great tree poem that held my hand as I began to write this book.”