Treemendous: Diary of a Not Yet Mighty Oak

by Bridget Heos, Mike Ciccotello (Illustrator)

Overview

This adorable picture book illustrates the life of a tiny acorn growing up to be a tall oak tree. A wonderful introduction to nonfiction for curious, nature-loving kids!

Hello, world! This little acorn is so excited to grow!

Told in the diary entries of an acorn, this picture book follows a young acorn and its long life as an oak tree, from being buried by a squirrel to towering over other trees. The text communicates the basic science simply and with humor, and the illustrations up the fun factor! Parents will love the sweet story and charming illustrations, and teachers and librarians will love the extra resources at the back.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780525579380
Publisher:	Random House Children's Books
Publication date:	03/09/2021
Sold by:	Random House
Format:	eBook
Pages:	40
File size:	13 MB
Note:	This product may take a few minutes to download.
Age Range:	3 - 7 Years

About the Author

Bridget Heos is the author of more than one hundred children's fiction and nonfiction books, including the Children's Choice Award-winning Mustache Baby series. She visits schools around the country to get kids excited about reading and writing. In quieter moments, she enjoys finding nature in the city with her kids. Visit her at authorbridgetheos.com

Mike Ciccotello will never grow up to be an oak tree, but he did grow up in Westmont, New Jersey--a town with many oak trees and acorns. There were so many acorns that kids couldn't help but make crunching sounds as they walked to school. Mike is the creator of the picture book Twins. He lives with his wife and twin boys by the beach in New Jersey. Visit him at ciccotello.com.

Editorial Reviews

04/05/2021

Told in a gently humorous first-person perspective, this narrative nonfiction tale follows an anthropomorphic “teeny tiny acorn” as it grows into a mighty oak among its family of 10,000 trees, who live in a diverse forest that includes walnuts, florals, and pines. As the acorn is squirreled away in the dirt and begins to grow, Heos employs an eager conversational voice to share the tree’s maturation process, including sprouting roots and photosynthesis: “Like magic, the sunlight changes the water and carbon dioxide into sugar.... Sweet!” Expressive digital illustrations by Ciccotello portray the acorn and its brethren with facial features, while clearly depicted root systems and labeled diagrams give the art an educational heft that’s just right for new nonfiction readers. Back matter includes sources and additional resources. Ages 3–7. (Mar.)

Publishers Weekly

"Expressive digital illustrations by Ciccotello portray the acorn and its brethren with facial features, while clearly depicted root systems and labeled diagrams give the art an educational heft that’s just right for new nonfiction readers.” —Publishers Weekly

From the Publisher

2020-12-15
One oak narrates its own tale—with diary entries, illustrations, and diagrams—from its inception as an acorn to nearing the status of “mighty oak.”

From the start, the oak’s voice is perky and laden with wordplay, accompanied by colorful artwork that is best described as cutesy. The art dutifully complements the text: For example, the oak makes a joke about pines and Christmas decorations, and from that page on, smiling pine trees sport small, round red balls—evoking ornaments—and lots of pale-green ribbons tied into bows. The diary conceit allows readers to get an idea of how long it may take for each stage of an oak’s life, and the illustrations provide clear depictions of the parts that sprout from an acorn. Entries are written simply, but the text is on the lengthy side for an effective read-aloud, and it carries a fairly heavy informational load. There are concise explanations of photosynthesis, heartwood, and sapwood and a brief mention of trees’ value in fighting climate change, expressed in the oak’s typical manner: “Not to be sappy, but trees make the world a better place.” The corny but not unclever monologue would be easy to convert into a skit for children to perform—wearing costumes much more interesting than the book’s cartoony trees with their inked-on smiles and round, sometimes lashed eyes. One page shows a child and two adults in the background, all apparently White. (This book was reviewed digitally with 10-by-20-inch double-page spreads viewed at 64% of actual size.)

Good for budding botanists who enjoy puns. (timeline, further resources) (Picture book. 5-7)

Kirkus Reviews