The Tree

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

Nature's endless cycle is the subject of Russell's first book, a delicate study in watercolors that fully explicates the old chestnut about tiny acorns and mighty oaks. A squirrel leaves an acorn behind; in the spring it sprouts. Over time it grows into a tree and becomes a home to forest animals; when it is old a woodcutter chops it down, and while some of its logs become fuel for the fire, others are turned into toys. The book is hand-sized; fold-out pages amplify the tree's progress. Sparely lyrical, the book's strength lies in its brevity; many pictures offer mild hints of how much time is passing, subtly reinforcingin ways no words couldthe idea of a tree's growth as a stately, almost reverent process. Ages 3-6. (Apr.)

School Library Journal

PreS-K-- In this small-format book, Russell tells a sweet story of an acorn, which grows to a seedling, and then to a tree. Children observe the tree as it becomes a home to some animals and provides shade for others. As the cycle of life is completed for this tree, a woodsman chops it down. He then uses the wood for making toys and a warm fire. Russell concludes with the thought that the cycle will be continued as yet another acorn begins to grow. The illustrations are warm, but not extraordinary, and the concept is the same as that in Buscaglia's The Fall of Freddie the Leaf (Holt, 1982) . With the many fold-out flaps that show the different stages of the tree's growth and the related activities ensuing from it, this will be better for story hours than for circulation. --J. J. Votapka, Oyster Bay-East Norwich Public Library, Oyster Bay, N.Y.