The Tree of Life is a beautiful book written by Nick Blackburn and illustrated by Julianne Vermilion. While the writer writes beautiful poem about life, the illustrator wonderfully presents the visual of the poem in incredible illustrations. I could not believe that the illustrator is hardly 20 years old. She added great beauty to the book.
The Tree of Life is a short book, I completed reading it in just one sitting. The author talks about subjects like life, soul, universe, etc. He depicts the fact that we all are part of this huge universe who keep coming back in one form or another to fulfil the purpose of our lives. The eternal spark, its journey and destination are written well in the poem. The poem also teaches us that we can learn our lessons even from children and young ones and that age is just a number. Though this poem is small, it makes great sense in a larger perspective.
The book also includes the story of the author and how his student inspired him to come up with this meaningful visual poem. Every page has illustrations that have deep meaning. I must say, this is the most colourful book I read in the recent times.
The book is very different and refreshing. I received the advance reviewer copy of the book from LibraryThing for an honest review. I enjoyed reading it. ( )

This is a beautiful book that presents a visual poem about the meaning of life. While the beautiful images enhance the poem, the multiple fonts used is somewhat distracting and might be difficult for some to read. While the introduction provides some background for the writing of the poem, I am unsure if it actually adds anything to the book.

This short story of the adventures of 'a spark of life' is lovely and the accompanying illustrations by Julianne Vermilion are beautiful. Although it is short, I think it would work best without the introduction. Let the poetry and art stand alone. I liked having the translation into Mandarin and knowing that this is an artistic collaboration between cultures. The messages speak to us all. ( )

A short story illustrating the journey made by an eternal spark. Choices made on the journey and how they are reflected in a current relationship between people from different cultures are discovered. Strong graphics illustrate this story. This edition published in English and Mandarin. ( )