Julie and the Mango Tree

An author and an illustrator, both with roots in the Caribbean, have collaborated to produce this large picture book bursting with tropical atmosphere.

At the heart of the story is a little girl’s love for mangoes.

In the front yard of Julie’s house stood a giant mango tree.

But the mangoes were too high up for Julie to reach,

even if she stretched up onto her tippy-toes.

She had to wait for them to drop to the ground before

she could eat them.

Julie is impatient for this natural process to occur. Some days Papa reaches a fruit down for his daughter, but, when he is not around, she tries to think of a way to get a juicy treat by herself. Can she climb the tree alone? Convince the tree to trade a mango for a few ripe plums? Sing a serenade in hopes that a mango will fall at her feet?

A heavy rainstorm comes up, and Julie is worried that this storm will damage the mangoes. Instead, it causes the fruit to come down and litter the ground. Her wish for a bounty of mangoes has been granted.

“Oh, my goodness!” Julie cried with delight.

“So many mangoes!”

She picked one up and took a bite. The sweet, juicy fruit

filled her mouth with joy and her tummy with delight.

Finally, the delicious taste she had waited so long for.

But there can be too much of a good thing. After Julie has eaten mangoes enough to cause a little discomfort in her stomach, she thinks she should find some way to deal with all the rest. They can’t be reattached to the tree, they are too heavy for neighbourhood ants to cart off, and it turns out they are not suitable for being used to build the walls of a fort.

Finally, the obvious solution comes to her: offering the fruit to friends and neighbours. Papa helps Julie to make a sign that says, “Delicious MANGOES. Please help yourself.” Putting the sign in front of a loaded table by the side of the road draws a crowd eager to enjoy the mangoes.

The straightforward text tells a simple story of a girl who satisfies her own wishes, then discovers the joy of sharing her good fortune with others. Julie’s life seems to be a happy one and her surroundings safe enough for her to enjoy this little adventure mostly solo.
The cover shows an image of a dark-skinned little girl superimposed on a sunburst of orange and pink. From the instant we see that picture of her biting into a mango and sending drops of juice flying, we understand her passion. Wide-eyed Julie, sporting pigtails and a casual outfit of t-shirt and shorts, is at the centre of every picture, although there are a dreadlocked daddy and other friendly adults shown a few times. Repeated images of the shiny orange fruit, rendered by Photoshop, definitely look good enough to eat, and the lush greenery in the backgrounds of many pictures put readers right on some warm, humid island.

The back two pages of the book include recipes for mango smoothies, mango salad and mango juice.

Julie and the Mango Tree, a story with a setting probably unfamiliar to most Canadian children, will make a pleasant addition to the story time shelves or to a primary unit on children of other countries.