A nature-loving little girl's favorite playmate is her maple tree, until the day she's surprised with a baby sister. - (Baker & Taylor)

A nature-loving little girl grows up alongside a tree planted to honor her birthday, an unusual friendship marked by the changing seasons, the little girl's occasional need to be loud and the birth of a baby sibling who also has loud days. - (Baker & Taylor)

"A nature-loving little girl's favorite playmate is her maple tree, until the day she's surprised with a baby sister"-- - (Baker & Taylor)

Lori Nichols’ enchanting debut features an irresistible, free-spirited, nature-loving little girl who greets the changing seasons and a new sibling with arms wide open.

When Maple is tiny, her parents plant a maple tree in her honor. She and her tree grow up together, and even though a tree doesn’t always make an ideal playmate, it doesn’t mind when Maple is in the mood to be loud—which is often. Then Maple becomes a big sister, and finds that babies have their loud days, too. Fortunately, Maple and her beloved tree know just what the baby needs. - (Penguin Putnam)

Lori Nichols' enchanting debut features an irresistible, free-spirited, nature-loving little girl who greets the changing seasons and a new sibling with arms wide open.

When Maple is tiny, her parents plant a maple tree in her honor. She and her tree grow up together, and even though a tree doesn't always make an ideal playmate, it doesn't mind when Maple is in the mood to be loud'which is often. Then Maple becomes a big sister, and finds that babies have their loud days, too. Fortunately, Maple and her beloved tree know just what the baby needs. - (Penguin Putnam)

Lori Nichols (www.lorinichols.com) spent her childhood in northwestern Pennsylvania surrounded by maple trees. As she grew, so did her love of trees and nature. She now lives in Birmingham, Alabama, with her husband and three free-spirited daughters. Many days you can find Lori and her family under their maple tree, eating lunch, playing kickball or just being loud. Maple is her first picture book. - (Penguin Putnam)

Booklist Reviews

When she was still in her mother's belly, Maple's parents planted a maple sapling in her honor. As the tree grew, so did the girl. Maple, who could be loud at times, sang songs to her tree, swayed around it, and even, sometimes, pretended to be a tree. Seasons passed, and through strong winds and falling snow, "Maple and her tree still had each other." Then things changed. A tiny wisp of a willow tree is planted, just as Maple's mother is about to give birth again. Turns out the noisy baby, Willow, is just as enchanted by the maple tree's shifting leaves as her older sister. This sweet story about seasons of change and love in different forms reads like a wistful recollection of childhood. Nichols is a talented debut author and illustrator: her voice is quiet and unique, and her pencil-on-Mylar illustrations, digitally colored, are similarly both nostalgic and fresh in feel. Share with siblings-to-be and, of course, anyone named Hazel or Juniper. Copyright 2014 Booklist Reviews.

Horn Book Guide Reviews

When she was "still a whisper," Maple's parents planted a tree. The pair grows up together, and Maple is a thoughtful playmate and caring friend (in autumn, she gives the bare tree her jacket). Before too long, her considerate habits prove useful for big-sisterhood. Nichols's emotive pencil drawings, glowing with digitally applied color, narrate much of this gentle, cyclical companionship story.

Kirkus Reviews

A little girl and a tree grow up together in this sweet debut. Maple, named for a sapling planted just before her birth, plays alongside her special tree every day, giving it hugs and watching its foliage flutter. Her free-spirited, bracing sessions of solitary, outdoor fun appear as crisp vignettes on white backgrounds, their sequencing marking the marching passage of time, which stops for moments of reflection. A long, grassy double-page spread appears at spring, showing Maple bent knees to nose over dolls, directing a miniaturized theater production under the tree's canopy. Here's a child's world, where page borders crop out parents' faces and private reverie recurs as an all-consuming pastime, transmuted by Nichols through charmingly plain pencil illustrations and mild digital colors. Maple, sweetly nondescript with her round head, low braids, comfortable dresses and pink cheeks, could easily sit next to any young reader at preschool or day care. Leaf rubbings (from real maple leaves!) dazzle with their sudden crinkles, veins and tart greens and orangy yellows. Another small tree, right next to Maple's, marks the birth of a new sibling (Willow), who soon joins her sister under dancing leaves in this kid's kingdom. An arboreal homage perfect for children reveling in alone time or reeling with a new sibling's arrival. (Picture book. 2-6) Copyright Kirkus 2013 Kirkus/BPI Communications.All rights reserved.

Publishers Weekly Reviews

Debut talent Nichols explores the relationship between a girl and the tree she's named after, planted by her parents in her honor. It's less a story than a string of affectionate reminiscences: "And even though Flavia, Millie Jane, Lena, Lily, and Constance were all good names... Maple was the perfect fit." Maple sings and dances for her tree and offers her coat to it when it loses its leaves. In return, the tree offers shade, "and its leaves would dance just for her." A new sapling appears along with a new baby sister, Willow, whom Maple is old enough to welcome without jealousy. Nichols draws Maple as a sort of everygirl, with pin-dot eyes, a pert nose, and a curved line for a smile; her tree and its surroundings are similarly generalized. The narrator's voice, by contrast, has its own distinctive, understated humor: "Then something really surprising happened," one page reads, as Maple notices her mother's bulging middle for the first time. An exploration of different kinds of love and different kinds of acceptance. Ages 3–5. Agent: Joanna Volpe, New Leaf Literary & Media. (Feb.)

School Library Journal Reviews

PreS-Gr 1—Readers will fall in love with Maple, whose parents planted a tree in her honor when she was "still a whisper." Each page turn shows the child growing, playing, and seeking refuge under her leafy companion. She sometimes longs for the friendship of someone who can play with her ("The tree wasn't very good at throwing snowballs") and wonders if the tree feels the same way. One day, Maple is surprised to realize that there's a sapling growing next to her tree, and she soon discovers that a sibling of her very own is on the way. The crispness of Nichols's lush, leafy illustrations on each thick white page helps Maple's adventures around the little sapling stand out. This may be Nichols's debut picture book, but the only thing green about this effort is the perfect shade of a maple leaf. This is a fresh addition to the standard new sibling fare, and young naturalists will identify with Maple's adventurous and tender spirit.—Jenna Boles, Greene County Public Library, Beavercreek, OH