Jane Wilsher

There's a kid in a wheelchair on the cover of the book! I love when books include disabilities, so I had high hopes upon turning the first page. Next, I laughed at the warning not to eat poop. I thought, "Yep, this is a book I must share with my boy."

As I continued my journey through the tree activities, I discovered numerous facts about trees, some of which I didn't even know as an adult. From how roots work to how bark protects the trees (did you know cinnamon is bark?), why leaves are green, and the lifecycle of an apple, 21 Things to Do With a Tree is filled with facts about trees.

The activities progress in order, similar to how a scientist discovers a new object and looks for clues about how it works. The book continually asks questions about the tree, which helps keep a child engaged. I would take this book with us on tree adventures and help connect the facts with the tree we're looking at. I also liked how many activities involved art and movement.

When I read nonfiction books, I consider how to incorporate them into a curriculum. Almost every page could be its own lesson. We have math with measuring the tree's diameter and height, science when talking about how trees breathe, how trees grow, and the lifecycle of fruit, civics with recycling and communities, and PE with climbing trees, among others.
I look forward to using this book as an activity guide.

Recommended age: 8-10 years (Elementary school)

Writing style: The book is directed to the child. It frequently asks questions like "What's your tree's name?" and "Do you prefer apples or oranges?" I'm happy it also includes asking parents before doing anything potentially unsafe. Each page is broken down into short 1-2 sentence facts, which makes it easy to learn a bunch of information quickly.

Lexile range (unofficial): 410L - 600L
Decoding difficulty: 4/5
Vocabulary difficulty: 4/5
Sentences difficulty: 4/5
Patterns difficulty: 5/5

Illustration style: The illustrations were created digitally and contain a lot of greens, blues, and browns, as you'd expect with trees. Overall, the colors are muted, so they don't interfere with the text. There's no consistent format to the pages, which I like. Some are full-page spreads. Others contain many "sticky note" type blurbs and different paper types and are split into sections. You even need to flip vertically on one page to see the whole image. I really liked the variety here. It kept things interesting.

Reality-based: 21 Things to Do With a Tree is a nonfiction book all about trees.

Disclaimer: Thank you, NetGalley and Quarto Publishing Group - Ivy Kids, for this title. All opinions are my own.… (mehr)

Trivia in the best possible Q/A format and with fun illustrations by Jane Wilsher and Louise Lockhart ! Here is a sampling of topics and questions:
The human body (which sense is fastest?), Science/tech (can cars be powered by coconuts?), Animals (how do bats sleep?), Nature (what color is snow?), Space/space exploration (what does space smell like?), Games for the mind (which color makes you hungry?), World history (who sent secret messages in food), Customs and cultures (who worshipped the onion?), Our world (which country has an airport shaped like a dragon?), Arts and entertainment (what happens when you listen to music?), and more! A grand book for all ages to share (and maybe read together?)!
I requested and received a free temporary ebook from Quarto Publishing Group – Frances Lincoln Children's Books via NetGalley. Thank you!… (mehr)