Quiet fable about creating joy. Relevant to the latest trend of 'upcycling.' Too bad the cover is not more engaging. A little too long for rugrats, better in school, perhaps as a companion to [b:The Lorax|7784|The Lorax|Dr. Seuss|http://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1327879938s/7784.jpg|886002]. ( )

A world (maybe not far off from ours) filled with garbage, and "all the things no one wanted" is where an old man lives, in his small home, with small windows. Every day, he attempts to clean, and clear, and rid this world of trash, hoping for life to return. Every night, he dreams of this life flourishing, green things returning, animals, and all the exotic life returning once again. An idea brings him to fashion the mountains of trash into a makeshift forest, and at first it consoles him, but its silence brings him to wish for the real deal. The next morning "the old man woke to the sound of birdsong." ( )

I don't know what it is about this book, probably the warm feeling that I get from the illustrations or maybe the hopeful note of the story, but I really enjoyed this book. ( )

For the theme of "hope": a wish for new life in a junkyard dystopian setting brings gradual change for a man who dreams of a garden. His forest of tin is the star here.

Genre: Fantasy. This is a good example of fantasy because the old man builds an entire forest of all the junk. He had a dream of a forest filled with trees and animals and was able to create a replica of the dream forest... soon the dream comes true when two real life birds bring seeds to the tin forest.

Setting: Integral. The setting is important to the story because without the tin there would not have been the tin forest which the real bird visited. The old man then, would not have gotten his dream of a forest.

Media: Oil