PIET FINDS A HOME

A new nest offers Piet the squirrel some pleasant surprises.

Piet confides to Peter, a pale-skinned forester, that his pine tree residence is uncomfortably “prickly,” so the duo set off to find the perky red squirrel a new home. Though a beech tree looms intimidatingly, its soft leaves are tempting, and Piet hops onto a branch. Soon both he and readers learn how trees consume water and why their sap is sweet. Piet discovers how welcoming his new home is; the tree provides cooling shade in summer, and in fall, its leaves turn “a riot of color.” The beechnuts Piet buries will feed him during the winter as he makes a nest in a hole in the trunk and sleeps—as the beech does too. By spring, he and the tree are firm friends, and the book closes with encouragement to readers to befriend the trees in their lives. Brief, unobtrusive text adds clearly elucidated information about trees and squirrels on every page, slightly expanded in an authors’ note. Translated from German, this gentle account of Piet’s forest year is low on tension or excitement, but its combination of narrative and science is appealing, boosted by Qiuqi’s simple but accurate color drawings, shaded with crayonlike textures and brimming with visual surprises, from bunnies to birds to bugs.

The next best thing to a forest walk—and might even inspire one.