It’s so much fun to read picture books with my toddler. She simply loves reading, and although here books of choice often revolve around The Berenstain Bears and Clifford or Dora (none of which I enjoy all that much), sometimes I can get in some great books that I love too.
As An Oak Tree Grows by G. Brian Karas (Nancy Paulsen, 2014) follows 200 years in the life of a mighty white oak tree. It begins with a small child (living in a wigwam), planting an acorn. Each subsequent page shows the changing world around the oak tree grows larger. The date on the bottom of the page move in 25 years, from 1775 to 2000. I loved seeing the changes from year to year. Although I’m not sure Strawberry understood the message of the changing generations, but it was something Raisin and I could enjoy. I also loved the emphasis at the end, that (spoiler!) although the tree was eventual injured and had to be taken down, there was still hope as a small oak sprouted next to the stump.
We recently had to have a few diseased trees removed from our backyard. Counting the rings of the tree was an encouraging thing as we thought about where on the tree rings we’d moved in this house, and how old the kids were when the tree was it’s various ages. I love the emphasis on history as a part of the tree. The book comes with a poster to illustrate various changing through history according to the tree rings: since I read a library copy, I was unable to see it. It definitely seems like a great book to put in our history and science collection!
