"Using lilting, rhyming couplets, this book explores the many items that are made from trees. But it doesn't stop there! Kids will also learn about the many uses of live trees--and the environmental danger to trees posed by forest fires, floods, and deforestation. Kids are encouraged to be kind, not only to one another, but to the environment as well."-- - (Baker & Taylor)

What gives you a seat, a floor for your feet?
A place you can sit with your family to eat? 
The pum-pum of a drum, a guitar’s twangy strum . . .
Tree wood makes music zing, ping, and hum.

Using lilting, rhyming couplets, this book explores the many items that are made from trees. But it doesn’t stop there! Kids will also learn about the many uses of live trees – and the environmental danger to trees posed by forest fires, floods, and deforestation. Kids are encouraged to be kind, not only to one another, but to the environment as well.

Kids will view their backyards and parks in a whole new light after going on an arboreal eco-tour in this gorgeous paean to trees.

This book is printed on responsibly sourced, 100% recycled FSC paper.

What gives you a seat, a floor for your feet?
A place you can sit with your family to eat? 
The pum-pum of a drum, a guitar’s twangy strum . . .
Tree wood makes music zing, ping, and hum.

Using lilting, rhyming couplets, this book explores the many items that are made from trees. But it doesn’t stop there! Kids will also learn about the many uses of live trees – and the environmental danger to trees posed by forest fires, floods, and deforestation. Kids are encouraged to be kind, not only to one another, but to the environment as well.

Kids will view their backyards and parks in a whole new light after going on an arboreal eco-tour in this gorgeous paean to trees.

This book is printed on responsibly sourced, 100% recycled FSC paper.

HARRIET ZIEFERT is a former elementary school teacher from North Bergen, New Jersey. A graduate of Smith College, she also holds an MA in Education from NYU. She is the bestselling author of more than 250 children’s books and has developed easy-to-read series for several major publishing houses. As founder of Blue Apple Books, she has published over 500 titles, many of which have become best-selling modern classics. Harriet Ziefert continues to create and publish books from her home, where she now lives, in Great Barrington, Massachusetts, where she is surrounded by trees.

BRIAN FITZGERALD is an internationally recognized, award-winning illustrator of children's books. He is a graduate of Ireland's National College of Art and Design and has also worked on publishing, editorial, and design projects. Brian Fitzgerald lives and works in Dún Laoghaire, Dublin.

Kirkus Reviews

What's so great about trees? Everything, according to this picture-book tribute to our green companions. Using just a few words on each double-page spread, Ziefert enumerates the many environmental, social, culinary, and aesthetic contributions that trees make to the world. Firstly, trees nourish humans and animals with food; several pages of artwork show people picking pecans and tapping syrup and animals nibbling on leaves, nuts, and berries. Trees also provide comfort; readers are given a tour of the many wooden objects found in our homes, such as "a floor for your feet," comfy chairs, a baby's cradle, and more. In this fashion, the book moves through items made from trees that are used in the spheres of music, art, and recreation before ending with a look at the ways trees provide homes for animals and a clarion call for protecting trees as air purifiers and vital sustainers of human life. Narrated in rhyming couplets that scan well, this book manages to pack a lot of thought-provoking concepts into a short format in a cohesive, engaging way. Fitzgerald's colorful, stylized digital illustrations brim with outdoorsy charm and highlight the many beautiful textures and grain patterns of tree barks and cut wood. The ensemble cast is diverse in race, skin tone, hair color, hair texture, and age. Arboreal adoration that will indeed leave readers feeling thankful for our wooded world. (Informational picture book. 4-8) Copyright Kirkus 2022 Kirkus/BPI Communications. All rights reserved.

Publishers Weekly Reviews

Via jaunty rhyming tributes, Ziefert offers up plentiful reasons to be grateful for trees. Seven chapters each open with a statement and question ("A tree is home./ Would life be comfy without trees?"), highlighting plants of many varieties for their roles as food, comfort, music, art, recreation, home, and life. The rhymes sometimes result in repetitious examples and unusual pairings, but they make for an upbeat readaloud ("Paper kites swirling...// Boats floating by...// Tall trees reaching up/ help us see sky"), and Fitzgerald's confident digital illustrations—stylized with the look of spongy paint and etched lines, and featuring individuals of varying skin tones—embrace Ziefert's vision simply. Final pages offer a pointed warning about "man-made destruction," but the book's overall focus is more squarely on the essential, overlooked roles that trees play. Ages 4–8. (Mar.)

School Library Journal Reviews

K-Gr 3—In this rhyming tribute, divided into seven sections, readers learn about the invaluable role trees play in nature and daily life. Each segment describes individual characteristics of trees and how they relate to the lives of humans, animals, and the environment. Cheerful couplets and repetitive phrases, excellent for reading aloud, explain how trees serve as food, comfort, music, and more. Two spreads that can be found toward the end of the book allude to climate change by way of "man-made destruction," but the text otherwise focuses on celebrating trees and forests and does not include specific ways to protect them. Fitzgerald's colorful illustrations depict diverse humans of varying skin tones enjoying a range of activities, as well as numerous animals and ecosystems thriving, all made possible by trees. Pair with Peter Wohlleben's Can You Hear the Trees Talking?" or Lita Judge's The Wisdom of Trees for STEM and nature units. VERDICT Despite the lack of supplemental back matter, this celebratory ode that encourages readers to explore and appreciate nature is a welcome addition to most collections.—Olivia Gorecke