A TREE FOR ALL SEASONS

A year in the life of a tree.

This cleverly designed novelty item is shaped like a tree; the trunk remains stable while the treetop forms the pages. Each subsequent page is bigger than the next, resulting in a layered front cover that reveals a slice of each page. In spring, the tree is covered with pink blossoms. A bird, ladybug and bee flit around its branches, and, out of place in the arboreal scene, a rabbit waits to be discovered behind a flap. Apples, a butterfly, dragonfly, caterpillar, fly, mouse and ants occupy the tree in summer, and this time, the flap reveals a worm munching a juicy apple. In the fall scene, the green background gives way to orange, against which individual leaves of red, gold and green stand out as well as a spider, snail and bird. Two flaps grace this page spread, concealing a squirrel and an owl. Readers will likely wonder about what has happened to winter, which has been given short shrift here—it’s pictured only on the back cover. Children will be attracted to the novel shape of this offering, but not much else about it stands out. Also, once the flaps have been lifted, they tend to stay open, preventing the book from closing properly.

Skippable.