Tuesday, January 14, 2020

Book cover: "A Tree Is Nice"

  • Title: A Tree Is Nice
  • Author: Janice May Udry (1928-present)
  • Illustrator: Marc Simont (1915-2013)
  • So, to be clear: Both creators of this gentle book about trees lived into their 90s (at least).
  • Book dimensions: 6.5 inches by 11 inches
  • Publisher: Harper & Row
  • Publication date: 1956
  • Pages: 32
  • Format: Hardcover
  • Provenance: Once part of the York County Library System. Checked out as recently as July 2017. But then it was stamped WITHDRAWN and, worse, "WEED" on the back cover. I realize that "weeding" is a book term, and it's a necessary part of the process of keeping a library relevant to its users. But it seems ironic and sad to mark a beautiful book about trees with the word "weed." I bought this book for 20 cents at the Dover Area Community Library's annual sale last fall. This book's next stop will be in a Little Free Library.

  • First sentence: "Trees are very nice."
  • Last sentence: "They wish they had one so they go home and plant a tree too."
  • Random sentence from the middle: "A tree is nice for a house to be near."
  • Goodreads rating: 3.93 stars (out of 5)
  • Goodreads review excerpt: Just a few days ago, Sarah Nelson wrote: "I keep musing about writing a picture book about trees, but can't imagine how I might write a tree book that is any more perfect and satisfying that this 1957 Caldecott winner."
  • Amazon rating: 4.7 stars (out of 5)
  • Amazon review excerpt: In 2014, Travis Ann Sherman wrote: "The gentle words of this book float along smoothly and effortlessly, and tell no tale. But as a tree lover, I feel the importance of throwing a spotlight on the trees around us. Kids inherently love trees for all the reasons listed in 'A Tree is Nice', because you can play in them, because birds nest in them, because you can pick their fruit and pick up their sticks. Everyone needs to be reminded how much we need and love them."
  • Plant a tree! We're hoping to plant some trees in our yard this spring, so this is a nice book to note as we think about tree types and locations. As arborday.org explains: "Trees provide the very necessities of life itself. They clean our air, protect our drinking water, create healthy communities, and feed the human soul. But these life necessities are threatened around the globe. To address this, we’re launching an unprecedented undertaking: the Time for Trees initiative. Together, we can create change ... through trees." That effort aims to plant 100 million trees in forests and communities by 2022 — the 150th anniversary of Arbor Day.
  • Other books with the word "tree" in the title on my Goodreads to-read list (though these are not necessarily books about trees):
    • Tree Houses: Fairy Tale Castles in the Air, by Jodidio Philip
    • Irish Trees: Myths, Legends & Folklore, by Niall Mac Coitir
    • The Private Lives of Trees, by Zambra Alejandro
    • Under the Udala Trees, by Okparanta Chinelo
    • Dancing with Trees: Eco-Tales from the British Isles, by Allison Galbraith
    • A River Could Be a Tree, by Angela Himsel
    • Around the World in 80 Trees, by Jonathan Drori
    • It's All Relative: Adventures Up and Down the World's Family Tree, by A.J. Jacobs
    • Stone Tree, by Gyrðir Elíasson
    • The Hidden Life of Trees: What They Feel, How They Communicate – Discoveries from a Secret World, by Peter Wohlleben
    • The People in the Trees, by Hanya Yanagihara
    • American Canopy: Trees, Forests, and the Making of a Nation, by Eric Rutkow

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