Author: Patricia Hegarty | Illustrator: Britta Teckentrup
This beautiful book tells the story of an owl sitting in his tree, watching as the seasons pass. We learn about the weather changing throughout the year, how the tree transforms with each season, and about the animals and insects which live and play nearby. This is a lovely book to introduce the beauty and benefits of trees to younger readers.
Patricia Hegarty’s simple rhyming couplets provide a gentle rhythm which is a joy to read and for little ones to listen to, even those unable to fully understand all of the words. The text is brimming with descriptive language which evokes the wonder of nature and it’s gifts; blossom, juicy apples, and the glow of moonlight. One of our favourite lines describes the forest “abloom with flowers” in Spring. The text is full of this rich language describing beautiful natural imagery and is illustrated equally beautifully by Britta Teckentrup’s signature artwork.
This is a joyfully colourful book filled with rainbow leaves, fresh greens in Spring, and warm yellow Summer sunshine – definitely a book to brighten your day! The central image of the tree is repeated on each page, surrounded by evolving seasonal colours and landscapes. This design works wonderfully for little ones to follow and enables children to recognise how the tree is changing through the cycle of the seasons, for example by noticing the colours of the leaves turning golden in Autumn. There are lots of other details to study too – my son loves to spot the spider spinning a web, watching attentively as the web grows bigger each time we turn the page.
We have been reading this book for over two years and I had expected my son to grow out of it, now that he is 3 and can listen to longer stories. However, it continues to be a firm favourite. This short book really is brimming with rich language and beautiful artwork which offers plenty of detail for children to discover and talk about, such as the birds nest which appears in Spring, the bees buzzing around the tree in Summer, fallen apples to count in Autumn, and snowflakes to spot in Winter. The interactive peek through element offers a fun way to experience the book for even the youngest readers. The sturdy card pages of the board book are ideal for little hands to explore – by tracing the shape of the owl’s hollow in the tree and peeking through to discover squirrels, birds, and more.
If you haven’t yet explored Patricia Hegarty and Britta Teckentrup’s children’s books I really suggest that you do. This is one which I am very happy to keep reading over and over again.