Under My Tree

This impressionistic story by Tallandier centers on a city girl, Susanne, who becomes enamored of a tree while visiting her grandparents in the country. The girl announces that her tree is “different from all the rest”—and indeed, Fujisawa depicts the deciduous tree more realistically than its more geometric forest neighbors. Susanne becomes increasingly fond of her tree as she discovers a mother owl and her babies in its hollow, hugs its bark (“You have to touch a tree if you really want to talk to it”), climbs its branches to revel in the view from the top, and listens to its music in the wind, as it “sang with her leaves, using the wind as her lungs.” Supplementing the lyrical narrative are leaf-shaped sidebars that provide minimal factual nuggets and activities (“There are over 60,000 tree species in the world”; “Run your fingers over the trunk”) and encourage readers to explore and appreciate trees. Dominated by a cool palette of variegated blues and greens, Fujisawa’s airy illustrations mimic the text’s placidity and feature endearing, close-up portraits of the book’s tree-hugging heroine. Ages 3–8. (Apr.)