Don't Cut Down the Silk Tree

作者：岩瀬成子（Iwase, Joko）/著  植田真（Ueda, Makoto） /绘    

出版社：文研出版    

出版日期：2020年    

ISBN：978-4-580-82416-4    

页数：160页    

规格：160 x 220mm    

适读年龄：9岁+

内容简介：

爷爷的花园里有一棵非常古老的蚕树，鸟儿们总是成群结队地飞向它，爷爷常常夸口说这是鸟儿们送给他的礼物。然而，现在大人们似乎想把它砍掉，因为这棵树太大了，比屋顶还要高，他们认为这样很危险。

“爷爷总是告诉我这是棵好树，”男孩哭着和他的朋友们说，“但大人们正在讨论砍掉它。” “他们把它砍倒了吗?”他的朋友们问。“没有，但他们还是砍了很多树枝。”男孩回答。即便如此，他还是为这棵树感到难过。

男孩敏锐地意识到，无数的生物，即使是那些我们看不到的生物，都是会逝去的。虽然这让他很伤心，但他还是决定永远不忘记这个事实。作者对儿童的共情和对儿童微妙情感的刻画赢得了赞誉，曾获得2022年国际安徒生奖的提名。

The grandfather of the main character had a very old silk tree in his garden. Birds always flock to it, and the grandfather used to boast that it was a gift from the birds. Now, however, it seems that the grownups want to cut it down because it’s too big, taller than the roof. It’s dangerous, they say. This makes the boy cry. “Grandpa always told me it was a good tree,” he tells his friends. “But they’re talking about cutting it.”

“Did they cut it down?” his friends ask.

“No, but they chopped off lots of branches,” the boy replies. Even that makes him feel sad for the tree.

The boy becomes acutely aware that countless creatures, some so small we don’t even see them, are all born to die. Although this grieves him, he decides that he doesn’t ever want to forget this fact. The author eloquently conveys the emotions of this sensitive child whose heart is touched and troubled by the deaths of every living thing and who struggles with the difficulty of expressing these feelings in words. The author has won well-deserved acclaim for her empathy for children and for her ability to portray their subtle emotions along with the questions that trouble their minds and their annoyance with the way grownups behave. She has been nominated for the 2022 Hans Christian Andersen Award.