Sparrow Tree Square

SPARROW TREE SQUARE is the name of a short story written by A. A. Milne for his collection, A Gallery of Children. The ten stories contained in the anthology were written by Milne to accompany a set of advertisements for Colgate, drawn by Dutch artist Henriette Willebeek le Mair. The picture that inspired the story "Sparrow Tree Square" illustrates a bustling park, filled with adults and children walking, talking, and feeding the sparrows beneath the branches of a large tree. I hope that users of the Sparrow Tree Square online literature resource center think of this website as a place like that shown in le Mair's picture -- full of activity and life.

From July 2006 through July 2010, Sparrow Tree Square published monthly magazines featuring public domain literature. Each of these issues are centered around a topic or theme, and feature a variety of literature that includes poems, traditional songs, stories, and folktales. Every issue includes an introduction and book review, and issues from April 2007 onward include two more regular features: Connections and Activities. These features are designed to encourage further exploration of the topics introduced in the magazine.

After publishing 50 regular issues, the time came to make Sparrow Tree Square an even better, more useful resource for reading, enjoying, and learning about literature. Issues of Sparrow Tree Square magazine are now published once a season, to make time for working on some exciting new resources.

Sparrow Tree Square is also the home of a growing collection of book reviews. Formerly housed at Under the Apple Tree Book Reviews, the Sparrow Tree Square book review collection features detailed reviews of books new and old for children and young adults. If you're an author or publishing professional interested in seeing your book featured in the collection, please see our review guidelines in our "Book Reviews" section.

Right illustration by Arthur Rackham, from Peter Pan in Kensington Gardens, 1916.