Toby Alone

Timothee De Fombelle (author)

Sarah Ardizzone (translator)

Francois Place (illustrator)

Walker Books, UK: 2006; 392pp

ISBN: 9781406313154

extension concepts

Genres: adventure, allegory

Issues: change, environment, family, friendship, resilience, values

Winner of the Marsh Award for Translation, 2009

Toby Lolness, one and a half millimetres tall, is on the run. Everyone on the Tree seems to be hunting him because his father refuses to reveal his latest discovery.

As is gradually revealed in the narrative flashbacks interspersed throughout Toby's flight down the Tree, his father is a great scientist. But as with so many brilliant minds, Sim Lolness' views are not always popular with the government – or the people. The scientist believes, for example, that the great Tree is alive and can therefore be damaged or killed. His research suggests
that if the people living there keep using Tree resources at their current rate of consumption that the Tree is at risk, hence his refusal to release the designs on how to use Crude Sap for mechanisation. Sim Lolness' views, in fact, threaten the greedy goals of such people as Joe Mitch, who uses Weevils to construct massive apartment buildings on any available Branch. Mitch, the 'Friendly Neighbour' is a merciless man determined to dominate the tree through wealth, intimidation and sheer brute force. Can young Toby, so small and so very alone, manage to escape these powerful, angry people in order to preserve his father's dream and, whether they understand it or not, protect the people of the Tree?

His parents captured, his old friends ready to betray him, Toby finds he must rely entirely on himself. Fleeing the entire length of the Tree, even the Lower Branches where he'd spent years of his childhood when the Council banished his parents from the Heights, Toby finds himself living in exile with the Grass People, who have been declared dangerous enemies of the Tree community. Believing his parents dead, forced to leave behind the girl he loves, Toby tries to forget his past and accept his new life – until the arrival of a familiar face tells him that yet more is required of this small boy with a great heart.

De Fombelle has created an incredibly detailed 'world in miniature' that is so convincing that readers will be looking at their local trees with magnifying glasses to see if they can find Toby's people. A powerful ecological allegory, Toby Alone examines the mindless nature of consumption and the blind ignorance that stands in the way of environmental conservation. De Fombelle's work also celebrates the power of the individual to bring about change whilst acknowleding that such individuals can work for good or ill. Toby's journey through innocence, disillusionment, anger and fear to finally arrive at a larger sense of responsibility encourages readers to look more closely at their own personal development and ask themselves whether they
are doing enough to bring about positive change in their own world. Thought-provoking, challenging and finely crafted writing, Toby Alone is a book to savour, share and discuss. It would make an excellent class novel, integrating with units relating to climate change and environmental studies.

Sarah Ardizzone's translation is remarkable in that the English version reflects the lyrical language and powerful imagery that was presumably present in the original French. Francois Place's illustrations enrich the story, carrying De Frombelle's ideas beyond the page and feeding readers' imaginations. Place makes Frombelle's imagined world tactile until readers can almost touch the lichen forests, see the caterpillar ink, taste the sap sweets, smell the sawdust created by the Weevils and hear the buds opening. There are a few full-page illustrations that are particularly detailed but every image gives the reader insight into the remarkable miniscule world of the Tree.

Cannot be too highly recommended.