A heartfelt, empowering STEM story.
Can a child help stop the destruction of a beloved tree?
Sadie and her mother walk through the forest greeting trees like old friends. One of their favorites is a “two-hundred-year-old beech with a trunk like an elephant’s leg.” This beech, called a mother tree, helps feed others by cooperating with fungi to bring nutrients to new saplings through its root system. When spray-painted orange circles appear on some of the trees, Sadie discovers that loggers will be cutting them down to make paper. Carpenter perfectly captures the emotional wallop of the moment by juxtaposing two spreads: a close-up of Momma revealing the sad news and a long view of the girl sprinting off, the orange circles surrounding her ominously. Devastated to learn that the mother tree is slated to be cut down, Sadie vows never to use paper again; Momma tenderly explains that it’s OK to use the resources that trees generously give to us as long as they aren’t wasted. Sadie hatches a plan to save the beech tree, because “the new forest will need her and we need the oxygen.” Rosen doesn’t sugarcoat the drama of hearing saws whining and the thuds of falling trees, emphasized by Carpenter’s sly details (a table lampshade and a teacup jostled by the vibrations). The stark, denuded landscape that follows brings tears, but also some joy as Sadie realizes she has the power to effect change. Sadie and Momma are pale-skinned and dark-haired.
A heartfelt, empowering STEM story. (information on how young readers can protect trees) (Picture book. 4-8)Pub Date: March 17, 2026
ISBN: 9780593705681
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Anne Schwartz/Random
Review Posted Online: Nov. 8, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2025
BOOK REVIEW
More fun antics to satisfy returning fans and snag new ones.
Not even the arrival of autumn can cool down this impetuous squirrel.
Although Squirrel is skeptical about Bird’s vegetable patch (“Nothing is HAPPENING!”), Bird does produce five (count them) lovely pumpkins. Squirrel picks out a favorite: “The enormous orange one.” Bird hints that Squirrel might want to help out; Squirrel sets out to fetch some work gloves and returns to find only four pumpkins. The frequently distracted Squirrel notices more gourds disappearing and leaps to the conclusion that a thief is near. And where’s Bird?! Has Squirrel’s pal also been taken? Diligently detecting, Squirrel finds clues—peck marks, footprints, and more—and produces a sketch of the suspect. As readers will guess, each clue turns out to point to one of Squirrel and Bird’s friends. Turns out Bird was delivering pumpkins to their pals while saving the big one to give to “my very best friend,” Squirrel. But why does Squirrel haul it up a tree? “So the Pumpkin Thief can’t find it, of course!” A page of pumpkin facts provides the learning component common to all titles in this series. Once more, readers will enjoy the pleasure of prediction and repetition, Squirrel’s silly persistence, Bird’s generosity, and the vibrant color illustrations, balancing orange with green.
More fun antics to satisfy returning fans and snag new ones. (Picture book. 4-8)Pub Date: July 28, 2026
ISBN: 9781464268076
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Sourcebooks Jabberwocky
Review Posted Online: Aug. 11, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2026
Just the thing for anyone with a Grinch-y tree of their own in the yard.
A grouchy sapling on a Christmas tree farm finds that there are better things than lights and decorations for its branches.
A Grinch among the other trees on the farm is determined never to become a sappy Christmas tree—and never to leave its spot. Its determination makes it so: It grows gnarled and twisted and needle-less. As time passes, the farm is swallowed by the suburbs. The neighborhood kids dare one another to climb the scary, grumpy-looking tree, and soon, they are using its branches for their imaginative play, the tree serving as a pirate ship, a fort, a spaceship, and a dragon. But in winter, the tree stands alone and feels bereft and lonely for the first time ever, and it can’t look away from the decorated tree inside the house next to its lot. When some parents threaten to cut the “horrible” tree down, the tree thinks, “Not now that my limbs are full of happy children,” showing how far it has come. Happily for the tree, the children won’t give up so easily, and though the tree never wished to become a Christmas tree, it’s perfectly content being a “trick or tree.” Martinez’s digital illustrations play up the humorous dichotomy between the happy, aspiring Christmas trees (and their shoppers) and the grumpy tree, and the diverse humans are satisfyingly expressive.
Just the thing for anyone with a Grinch-y tree of their own in the yard. (Picture book. 4-8)Pub Date: Aug. 6, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-4926-7335-4
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Sourcebooks Jabberwocky
Review Posted Online: July 13, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2019
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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