A Guardian Children's Book of the Year
An environmental fairytale made for our times, written to be read by adults and children, from the Booker Prize-winning author of The Famished Road.
In the forest near Mangoshi's village in Africa there grows a very special flower. Mangoshi knows that only this flower can save her mother's life. It can save her village too. All she has to do is find it.
Ben Okri and Diana Ejaita have created a magical world of beauty and colour, an enchanting array of extraordinary trees, each with its own personality and voice. The chief among them, the great baobab, invites us into his branches to travel the world and see for ourselves the perils of not listening to nature. All around us, forests are vanishing, and no one is listening.
'It was a sheer joy to be able to read this. It is mysterious and magical and true. Children and those who read it to them will love it and long remember it. The illustrations are woven wonderfully around the words; the trees are with you, telling it, writing it. Once read we will know never to take trees or leaves for granted again. A powerful symphony of a story that will resonate for every reader. We hear the wind in the trees on every page. We only have to listen' MICHAEL MORPURGO