Tree: A Peek-Through Picture Book

by Britta Teckentrup

Overview

Watch the tree change with the seasons as each page is turned in this beautiful and educational picture book for curious young minds. 

New York Public Library’s 100 Best Books for Kids 2016

Through a hole in the book’s cover, an owl invites you inside to meet a majestic tree and all its forest inhabitants during the changing seasons. With clever peekaboo holes throughout, each page reveals a new set of animals playing and living in the tree—baby bears frolicking in the spring, bees buzzing around apples in the summer, squirrels storing nuts in the fall, and finally the lone owl keeping warm during the winter chill—until another year begins. . . .
 
Children will love seeing a new set of animals appear and then disappear as each page is turned, and along the way they’ll learn about the seasons and how a forest and its inhabitants change throughout the year.

Look for all the books in the Peek-Through Picture Book series: Tree, Bee, Ocean, Moon, Home, and Bugs.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781101932421
Publisher:	Random House Children's Books
Publication date:	02/09/2016
Pages:	32
Sales rank:	179,276
Product dimensions:	9.10(w) x 10.90(h) x 0.40(d)
Age Range:	3 - 7 Years

About the Author

BRITTA TECKENTRUP has written and illustrated over seventy children's books, which have been published in over twenty countries. Her books include Tree, Bee, Moon, Ocean, Home, Bugs, and Family in the Peek-Through Picture Book series, as well as Under the Same Sky, which was shortlisted for the Kate Greenaway Medal. Born in Hamburg, Germany, and educated in London at St. Martin's College and the Royal College of Art, she lives with her family in Berlin.

Editorial Reviews

…Teckentrup's latest adventure in beautiful design…Rhyming lines at the bottom of the page…are simple and straightforward…the real action is happening above, in the illustrations.

The New York Times Book Review - Maria Russo

11/02/2015
A apple tree stands bare in the still of winter, its solitary occupant—an owl—peering out from a die-cut hole in the center of its trunk: “Owl sits watching in his tree.../ No one sees as much as he.” As the pages turn and the seasons change, the owl stays put, but other animals appear in additional die-cuts, creating the sense of nature reawakening in full force. In straightforward couplets, Teckentrup (Get Out of My Bath!) describes how the tree and its environment transform: “Blossom falls and leaves are growing,/ A gentle springtime breeze is blowing./ Squirrels scamper here and there,/ Playful fox cubs sniff the air.” Crisp illustrations with grainy screenprintlike textures shift between bright blues, reds, yellow, and greens as day turns to night, leaves fill the tree, and apples appear in its branches; the surrounding woodland bustles with bees, butterflies, and perky daisies. Teckentrup brings the story full circle, seasonally speaking, and then some, ending with the promise of another spring instead of a cold, quiet winter. A playful yet focused look at constancy and change within a specific natural setting. Ages 3–7. (Feb.)

Publishers Weekly

New York Public Library’s 100 Best Books for Kids 2016!

"Ideal for sharing up close, where little ones can get a good look at the pictures, this gentle, easy-to-memorize story of the seasons is a great fit for bedtime."—Booklist 

"Adult readers will relish guiding their little ones into lessons about the seasons, colors, wildlife, and more. This unassuming story is an intergenerational delight."─Kirkus Reviews

"A playful yet focused look at constancy and change within a specific natural setting."—Publishers Weekly

From the Publisher

2015-12-08
Like the stealthy spider quietly spinning its web on a low bough, life around and on the apple tree is never static. With each turn of the page, curious foxes, scampering squirrels, nesting birds, and cavorting bear cubs entertain a watchful owl stationed in a hollow in the trunk. The textured cover's die-cut window nearly traverses the entire book. From the owl's hollow to the cubs climbing the broad trunk and the squirrels and birds among its branches, multiplying cutouts reveal new critters and beg to be poked through by itchy fingers. The accompanying spare but whimsical couplets lull readers through the seasons from one winter to the next, then on to spring again. "The seasons have all come and gone. / Snow has fallen, sun has shone. // Owl sees the first new buds appear, / and so begins another year…." Teckentrup's stylized block-print artwork focuses readers' eyes on the myriad details of the unfolding forest scenes. On the left of each spread, the tree is brown with gold/green flecks and boasts big green apples; on the right, the mirror-image tree is rust with gold flecks and dangles red apples. Multicolored leaves change with the weather until a bare tree stands alone in drifts of snow. Adult readers will relish guiding their little ones into lessons about the seasons, colors, wildlife, and more. This unassuming story is an intergenerational delight. (Picture book. 3-10)

Kirkus Reviews