diff --git a/package.json b/package.json
index cea5a62..184bf3b 100644
--- a/package.json
+++ b/package.json
@@ -27,14 +27,14 @@
     "typecheck": "tsc"
   },
   "devDependencies": {
-    "@types/node": "20.11.3",
+    "@types/node": "20.11.5",
     "@typescript-eslint/eslint-plugin": "6.19.0",
-    "@vitest/coverage-v8": "1.2.0",
+    "@vitest/coverage-v8": "1.2.1",
     "eslint": "8.56.0",
     "eslint-plugin-import": "2.29.1",
     "eslint-plugin-jsdoc": "48.0.2",
     "http-server": "14.1.1",
     "typescript": "5.3.3",
-    "vitest": "1.2.0"
+    "vitest": "1.2.1"
   }
 }
diff --git a/src/hyparquet.d.ts b/src/hyparquet.d.ts
index 3dcc0fe..85d52cb 100644
--- a/src/hyparquet.d.ts
+++ b/src/hyparquet.d.ts
@@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
-export { AsyncBuffer, FileMetaData } from './types'
+export { AsyncBuffer, FileMetaData, SchemaTree } from './types'
 
 /**
  * Read parquet data rows from a file-like object.
@@ -38,7 +38,7 @@ export async function parquetRead(options: ParquetReadOptions): Promise<void>
  *
  * @param {AsyncBuffer} asyncBuffer parquet file contents
  * @param {number} initialFetchSize initial fetch size in bytes (default 512kb)
- * @returns {Promise<FileMetaData>} metadata object
+ * @returns {Promise<FileMetaData>} parquet metadata object
  */
 export async function parquetMetadataAsync(asyncBuffer: AsyncBuffer, initialFetchSize: number = 1 << 19 /* 512kb */): Promise<FileMetaData>
 
@@ -46,10 +46,18 @@ export async function parquetMetadataAsync(asyncBuffer: AsyncBuffer, initialFetc
  * Read parquet metadata from a buffer
  *
  * @param {ArrayBuffer} arrayBuffer parquet file contents
- * @returns {FileMetaData} metadata object
+ * @returns {FileMetaData} parquet metadata object
  */
 export function parquetMetadata(arrayBuffer: ArrayBuffer): FileMetaData
 
+/**
+ * Return a tree of schema elements from parquet metadata.
+ *
+ * @param {FileMetaData} metadata parquet metadata object
+ * @returns {SchemaTree} tree of schema elements
+ */
+export function parquetSchema(metadata: SchemaElement[]): SchemaTree
+
 /**
  * Decompress snappy data.
  * Accepts an output buffer to avoid allocating a new buffer for each call.
diff --git a/src/hyparquet.js b/src/hyparquet.js
index 5f826d2..b912757 100644
--- a/src/hyparquet.js
+++ b/src/hyparquet.js
@@ -1,5 +1,5 @@
-import { parquetMetadata, parquetMetadataAsync } from './metadata.js'
-export { parquetMetadata, parquetMetadataAsync }
+import { parquetMetadata, parquetMetadataAsync, parquetSchema } from './metadata.js'
+export { parquetMetadata, parquetMetadataAsync, parquetSchema }
 
 import { parquetRead } from './read.js'
 export { parquetRead }
diff --git a/src/metadata.js b/src/metadata.js
index 336791b..fc7ea3a 100644
--- a/src/metadata.js
+++ b/src/metadata.js
@@ -1,3 +1,4 @@
+import { schemaTree } from './schema.js'
 import { deserializeTCompactProtocol } from './thrift.js'
 
 /**
@@ -17,7 +18,7 @@ import { deserializeTCompactProtocol } from './thrift.js'
  * @typedef {import("./types.d.ts").FileMetaData} FileMetaData
  * @param {AsyncBuffer} asyncBuffer parquet file contents
  * @param {number} initialFetchSize initial fetch size in bytes
- * @returns {Promise<FileMetaData>} metadata object
+ * @returns {Promise<FileMetaData>} parquet metadata object
  */
 export async function parquetMetadataAsync(asyncBuffer, initialFetchSize = 1 << 19 /* 512kb */) {
   // fetch last bytes (footer) of the file
@@ -46,7 +47,7 @@ export async function parquetMetadataAsync(asyncBuffer, initialFetchSize = 1 <<
  * Read parquet metadata from a buffer
  *
  * @param {ArrayBuffer} arrayBuffer parquet file contents
- * @returns {FileMetaData} metadata object
+ * @returns {FileMetaData} parquet metadata object
  */
 export function parquetMetadata(arrayBuffer) {
   // DataView for easier manipulation of the buffer
@@ -140,3 +141,14 @@ export function parquetMetadata(arrayBuffer) {
     metadata_length: metadataLength,
   }
 }
+
+/**
+ * Return a tree of schema elements from parquet metadata.
+ *
+ * @typedef {import("./types.d.ts").SchemaTree} SchemaTree
+ * @param {FileMetaData} metadata parquet metadata object
+ * @returns {SchemaTree} tree of schema elements
+ */
+export function parquetSchema(metadata) {
+  return schemaTree(metadata.schema, 0)
+}
diff --git a/src/schema.js b/src/schema.js
index 9a45fcd..8be3941 100644
--- a/src/schema.js
+++ b/src/schema.js
@@ -2,31 +2,31 @@ import { FieldRepetitionType } from './constants.js'
 
 /**
  * @typedef {import('./types.js').SchemaElement} SchemaElement
- * @typedef {{ element: SchemaElement, children: SchemaTree[], endIndex: number }} SchemaTree
+ * @typedef {import('./types.js').SchemaTree} SchemaTree
  */
 
 /**
  * Build a tree from the schema elements.
  *
  * @param {SchemaElement[]} schema
- * @param {number} i index of the root element
+ * @param {number} rootIndex index of the root element
  * @returns {SchemaTree} tree of schema elements
  */
-function schemaTree(schema, i) {
-  const root = schema[i]
+export function schemaTree(schema, rootIndex) {
+  const root = schema[rootIndex]
   const children = []
-  i++
+  let count = 1
 
   // Read the specified number of children
   if (root.num_children) {
     while (children.length < root.num_children) {
-      const child = schemaTree(schema, i)
-      i = child.endIndex
+      const child = schemaTree(schema, rootIndex + count)
+      count += child.count
       children.push(child)
     }
   }
 
-  return { endIndex: i, element: root, children }
+  return { count, element: root, children }
 }
 
 /**
diff --git a/src/types.d.ts b/src/types.d.ts
index d9c5236..394b14f 100644
--- a/src/types.d.ts
+++ b/src/types.d.ts
@@ -34,6 +34,12 @@ export interface FileMetaData {
   metadata_length: number
 }
 
+export interface SchemaTree {
+  element: SchemaElement
+  children: SchemaTree[]
+  count: number
+}
+
 export interface SchemaElement {
   type?: ParquetType
   type_length?: number
diff --git a/test/metadata.test.js b/test/metadata.test.js
index 040c73e..427961d 100644
--- a/test/metadata.test.js
+++ b/test/metadata.test.js
@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 import fs from 'fs'
 import { describe, expect, it } from 'vitest'
-import { parquetMetadata, parquetMetadataAsync } from '../src/hyparquet.js'
+import { parquetMetadata, parquetMetadataAsync, parquetSchema } from '../src/hyparquet.js'
 import { toJson } from '../src/toJson.js'
 
 /**
@@ -77,6 +77,59 @@ describe('parquetMetadataAsync', () => {
   })
 })
 
+describe('parquetSchema', () => {
+  it('should parse schema from addrtype-missing-value.parquet', async () => {
+    const arrayBuffer = await readFileToArrayBuffer('test/files/addrtype-missing-value.parquet')
+    const metadata = parquetMetadata(arrayBuffer)
+    const result = parquetSchema(metadata)
+    expect(toJson(result)).toEqual({
+      children: [
+        {
+          children: [],
+          count: 1,
+          element: {
+            converted_type: 0,
+            name: 'ADDRTYPE',
+            repetition_type: 1,
+            type: 6,
+          },
+        },
+      ],
+      count: 2,
+      element: {
+        name: 'duckdb_schema',
+        num_children: 1,
+        repetition_type: 0,
+      },
+    })
+  })
+
+  it('should parse schema from rowgroups.parquet', async () => {
+    const arrayBuffer = await readFileToArrayBuffer('test/files/rowgroups.parquet')
+    const metadata = parquetMetadata(arrayBuffer)
+    const result = parquetSchema(metadata)
+    expect(toJson(result)).toEqual({
+      children: [
+        {
+          children: [],
+          count: 1,
+          element: {
+            name: 'numbers',
+            repetition_type: 1,
+            type: 2,
+          },
+        },
+      ],
+      count: 2,
+      element: {
+        name: 'schema',
+        num_children: 1,
+        repetition_type: 0,
+      },
+    })
+  })
+})
+
 // Parquet v1 from DuckDB
 const addrtypeMetadata = {
   version: 1,