The Little Apple Tree - Inga Moore

In the garden where Lucy's father works is a little apple tree. Although Lucy can't walk as well as other children, she loves to go right through the garden to the corner where the little apple tree stands. But the tree is small and frail and never blossoms or bears fruit. Lucy's father wants to pull it out - there is no room in his garden for a useless tree.

'Please wait, ' Lucy pleads with him. 'it will blossom, I know it will.'

Inga began illustrating while she was still at school where she had a constant and irresistible urge to liven up boring passages of Latin with cartoons, likewise physics and chemistry tests. It wasn't until many years later, that she saw illustration as something you could do as a career. She had no formal training but she did have a good grounding in technical drawing and patience and discipline. She wrote and illustrated her first books in Australia and then returned to England. As well as writing her own books, she has illustrated several classics such as Wind in the Willows and The Secret Garden . She can't see a time when she would want to stop making picture books - not altogether. It's one of the most enjoyable things you can do!