The Sun in the Tree

An Wenlin / 张怀存Heilongjiang Juvenile and Children's Publishing House · ChinaDec 2025

Rating 3.8
Word count
8.3K words
Chapters
31
ISBN
9787531950745

Tags

Literary Appreciation Nature ObservationChanging SeasonsCuriositySpiritual ComfortTender SentimentBilingual EditionIllustrated GuideBeautiful EssaysPoetry and PaintingParent-Child Reading

Summary

The Sun on the Tree is a bilingual Chinese–English oil-painting poetry collection co-created by An Wulin and UK-based painter Zhang Huaicun, bringing together poetry, oil paintings and English translation. The works in the book draw inspiration from Zhang Huaicun's oil paintings and from nature. In these works, the writer turns the seasonal phenomena of nature, flowers, grasses and trees, as well as deep family affection, teacher–student bonds and friendship, into fresh, lively and delightfully charming words that flow from the pen, resonating between children and the natural world and guiding them to perceive, amid poetic flavor, the beauty of imagery, rhythm and implication in poetry.

Editor's review

This is a hybrid volume that brings poetry, oil paintings, and English translation together. An Wulin's writing is fresh and vivid, while Zhang Huaicun's oil paintings are drawn from nature; the two set each other off, grounding the four seasons, flowers and trees, family, teachers, and friendship in visible images and recitable rhythms. The English translations in the book offer an entry point for bilingual reading, allowing children to feel the beauty of imagery, rhythm, and meaning in poetry amid poetic and pictorial scenes, without being weighed down by the sense of a task to "learn English" or "learn poetry." It is better read slowly: first look at the painting, then read the poem, then listen to how the English sounds, letting visual, auditory, and linguistic experience echo one another. For family reading and classroom poetry initiation, this book offers a low-threshold path to aesthetic education, and it also makes a suitable gift for children just beginning to encounter poetry.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Not a good fit for

Reading tips

  1. First leaf through the oil paintings to take in the images, then read the corresponding poem aloud, and finally try the English, entering slowly in three steps
  2. Choose one page a day for parent-child reading, and after reading let the child say what they see in the picture and hear in the poem
  3. Copy out favorite lines and pair them with a small drawing of one's own to make simple poetry cards
  4. Teachers can select short poems on the four seasons and organize a music-accompanied reading or picture-description exercise

About the publisher

Heilongjiang Juvenile and Children's Publishing House China · Founded in 1983

Heilongjiang Juvenile and Children's Publishing House publishes across children's literature, documentary literature, popular science, and travel and educational reading, with its library titles centering on stories of youth and growth and on knowledge-oriented books. The representative series "Fenghuo Shaonian: Burning Legends of Growth" includes works such as Shaonian Lian, The Horse Herder Boy, Taiping Drum, and Iron Evidence, portraying young people's growth through war and military themes, while the "Traveling with the Yangtze and Yellow Rivers" series focuses on the lower reaches of the two rivers and combines geography with travel-oriented popular science. Books such as The Sun in the Tree and Childhood in the Fields reflect the press's continuing attention to childhood experience and literary expression. Its authors include An Wulin, Zhang Huaicun, Yi Hong, A Cheng, Yu Qiuyue, Chang Xing'er, Yan Yaoming, and Zhang Xuesong. Judging from the titles held, the press shows a clear strength in planning thematic series and publishing local children's literature; public information on its fuller publishing output and complete catalogue is limited.

Contents

  1. 版权信息
  2. 序
  3. 树上的太阳
  4. 故乡的树
  5. 心事
  6. 假装看不见
  7. 两棵树
  8. 背影
  9. 我听见秋天的脚步声
  10. 秋雨
  11. 彩色的风铃
  12. 秋天的馈赠
  13. 静物画
  14. 喂，你好
  15. 早安，朋友
  16. 荷叶
  17. 两盆花
  18. 蜻蜓
  19. 我很好奇你的名字——致友人怀存
  20. 我喜爱这田园的风光
  21. 小鸟为何起得如此之早
  22. 远方
  23. 树的愿望
  24. 茉莉花开
  25. 小猫
  26. 美人蕉
  27. 聆听
  28. 白雪红梅
  29. 秋天
  30. 雨中的小鸟
  31. 后记

FAQ

Is this book a poetry collection or an art book? It is a Chinese-English bilingual oil-painting poetry collection that brings together poetry, oil paintings, and English translation. Zhang Huaicun's oil paintings inspired An Wulin's poetry, and the book presents the artworks, Chinese poems, and English translations together, the three complementing one another; it is not a single poetry collection or art book.
Can a child with only basic English read it? They can try. The English translations correspond to the short poems, and the language is not complicated, so it is suitable for trial reading with a parent or teacher. The focus is on feeling the rhythm of the poetry and the mood of the images, not on parsing grammar word by word; where reading is rough, it is fine to skip ahead, since keeping interest in bilingual reading matters more.
What age of children is this book suitable for? It is better suited to primary-school children, especially readers just beginning to encounter poetry who are relatively sensitive to images and sounds. Younger children can look at the pictures and listen to the poems with a parent, while older students can try reading the Chinese and English aloud independently; adjust flexibly according to the child's reading interests.

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About the author

An Wenlin Author · Chinese · 1966

An Wenlin was born in 1966 in Xiaxian County, Shanxi Province, and graduated from the Department of Chinese at Shandong University. He is a member of the China Writers Association and vice president of the Chinese Fable Literature Research Society, and has long been engaged in children's literature, poetry, and literary criticism. His work spans fairy tales, children's poetry, and prose miscellanies, drawing meaning from everyday life and natural scenery in a clear, rhythmic language suited to young readers' abilities and aesthetic experience. The library holds two of his works, including Tree-Top Sun and From Summer to Autumn, commonly classified under literary appreciation and prose miscellanies. Public information is limited, yet his cross-genre writing and criticism show a sustained concern for the quality of children's literature and offer readers a way to understand his style.

张怀存 Author

Zhang Huaicun is an author about whom limited public information is available. Four works can currently be confirmed: The River Is Awake, the Heart Is Awake; The Sun on the Tree; and Picking Up a Cloud's Cat and The Cloud's Secret Manor, both from the Zhang Huaicun Philosophical Prose Series. Classified under social fiction, literary appreciation, classic works, and miscellaneous prose, these works suggest a range that spans narrative and reflection, combining literary reading with personal thought. Judging from the imagery in the titles, the writing often revolves around natural and everyday things—rivers, trees, clouds, and cats—and carries a lyrical, philosophical prose quality, tending to use light imagery to convey observations on life and the inner world. Because biographical information is unavailable, little more can be said about the author's background; readers may begin with these four works to sense a writing style that blends story, appreciation, and informal reflection.