Reading The Silent Tree Remembers

Using Your Imagination

When we read, we use our imaginations to help us understand what we read. In other words, we see images in our minds based on the words in the story or text, often imagining beyond the words provided. For instance, in the first lines of The Silent Tree Remembers, when we read, “Here you stand, with your saw, pondering my end,” we see an image in our mind of a man walking up to a tall tree carrying a chainsaw, then standing there looking up at the tree. Possibly we hear leaves rustling in the wind and birds singing around us. Maybe we feel a cool breeze on our faces. Further, we imagine the tree noticing the man and the chainsaw before calmly trying to communicate with him. Just as we can hear our own thoughts, we hear the tree’s words spoken just as silently. 

In books with illustrations like this one, the pictures give our imaginations a head start. However, it's up to us to imagine the surrounding scene, the action, the sounds, the smells, and/or the tastes. Imagining these details helps us engage with the text.

You try it. Turn to another page in this story. Read the text, glance at the picture, then close your eyes. What details do you see? What action or movement do you notice? What do you hear? What can you smell or taste? 

You’ll find it is fun to use your imagination and by doing so you’ll enjoy what you read even more. 

Sensory Details

When we imagine a scene from something we read, it is usually in motion with all the sights, sounds, and sometimes smells or tastes that come with it. When text is written in a way that we can clearly see it, hear it, feel it, smell it, and/or taste it, that technique is called using sensory details. Writers use sensory details to engage us as readers and to help us feel what it is like to be there in the moment. 

There are several examples of sensory details in The Silent Tree Remembers. When we read, “The wind whistled through my branches, and I talked to you. You stood so still, listening,” we hear the whistling sound the wind makes when it flows through the leaves and branches. We can even “hear” the lack of sound coming from the man who is standing so quietly as he listens. 

Another example is, “When I shed my leaves with a cool breeze and they swirled above your head filling the air with dancing colors before finally floating to the ground.”  When reading these lines, we not only feel the cool breeze on our skin, but we also see the leaves swirling in the air around us, flowing back and forth until they softly land on the ground. 

An author who writes with sensory details makes us feel like we are there in the midst of the scene. As readers, we then become a part of the story being told.