#991 of 1001 · April 18, 2023

There’s something magical about a treehouse—halfway between earth and sky, it stands as a symbol for friendship, relaxation, and imaginative play. @carterhiggins and @plaidemily have taken these elements and woven them into the delightful Everything You Need for a Treehouse. For construction, the list contains such sensible items as blueprints, hammers, nails, saws, and hard hats. For furnishing, featured recommendations include a rope swing, a bookshelf, a backpack of snacks, sleeping bags, and flashlights. Both the first page and the last suggest a pair of intangible ingredients: time and looking up. Higgins uses each element of her poetic list as a jumping-off point to explore captivating natural imagery with metaphors such as, “one soldier/in an army of trees”, “you can make your own sky/with spotlights and shadows”, and “the wind keeps them/snug with a rustle/which is a hush you can feel/in your bones”. Hughes contributes lush, delicate-textured illustrations, a seamless combination of graphite and digital technique. #tree #house #treehouse #trees #nature #friend #friends #friendship #book #books #childrensbooks #beautifulbooks #picturebook #picturebooks #picturebookillustration #picturebookart #childrensbookillustration #childrensliterature #illustration #kidlit #kidsbooks #bookworm #booklover #booklovers #bibliophile #bookstagram #bookstagrammer #bookstagrammers #instabook #instabooks