TREE SPIRITS (2nd edition) is a great gift for your youngest, lap-sitting reader

TREE SPIRITS
LOUISE WANNIER (illus. April Tatiana Jackson)
True Roses Books
$24.95 trade paper, available now

Rating: 5* of five

The Publisher Says: Tree Spirits is an interactive picture book that encourages creativity, social emotional intelligence, and seeing the world with fresh eyes. Encouraging children to develop their imagination, creativity and emotional intelligence.

With 25 color photographs of trees, the rhyming text asks, “What do you see when you look up at this tree?” inviting a child to use their imagination. Turning the page reveals an illustrated overlay of a charming animal inspired by the lines and shapes of the tree bark. Each animal introduces a different emotion helping children to understand their own inner spirit and feelings.

For parents and grandparents and friends and family it is a fun book to read with the children in their lives. The book includes 4 sheets of tracing paper to invite them to begin drawing what they see and ends with encouraging children to go out and look at the trees in their neighborhood and keep noticing, “What do I see?”

LOUISE WANNIER “Safta”—“Safta” is Hebrew for grandmother and, as of this printing, she is very lucky to have five grandchildren. As an artist, Louise is fascinated by observing patterns and loves the discovery of how the camera shifts the focus and emphasis from what our eyes natively see. Beautiful illustrations by talented Graphic Artist April Tatiana Jackson.

I RECEIVED A DRC FROM THE PUBLISHER VIA EDELWEISS+. THANK YOU.

My Review: Cool little book for very, very young readers, and pre-readers with grandparental help. Accustoms kids to observing, and interpreting their observations, not just staring at things in their worlds. It's got beautiful images of trees, which is always a good thing to expose a child to; it's got drawn overlays to point up the author's intended images to be found when looking at the tree photograph...and because it's an overlay it is a separate experience from just looking at how beautiful the trees are.

This is an absolutely delightful lap-book for your smallest family member. Start at about two or three, it seems to me.

Enjoy the first pages of the book.

It's beautiful, it's got a great message all our descendants need to hear, process, and internalize, and it's exactly right for Yule gifting.