Please welcome author Maria Gianferrari and her picture book list of 7 picture books featuring oak trees.
We are giving away a copy of Just One Oak! To enter, please leave a comment below.
Just One Oak: What a Single Tree Can Be by Maria Gianferrari, illustrated by Diana Sudyka
This picture book celebrates oak trees as keystone species that support a whole community of creatures, beautifully brought to life by illustrator-extraordinaire, Diana Sudyka. [nonfiction picture book, ages 4 and up]
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Greetings, Pragmatic Mom readers!
In honor of the AWE-some oak, here’s a list of my favorite oak tree books:
Because of an Acorn by Lola M. Schaefer and Adam Schaefer, illustrated by Frann Preston-Gannon
Though published ten years ago, Because of an Acorn, still has a timeless appeal for the youngest readers and listeners with its spare and simple text, enhanced by Preston-Gannon’s earthy color palette. The “because of” refrain illustrates the oak tree life cycle through cause and effect, as well as a circular structure that begins with a single acorn and ends with its potential to become a forest. [nonfiction picture book, ages 2 and up]
Mighty: The Story of an Oak Tree Ecosystem by Henry Cole
Mighty also begins with an acorn, one dropped by a blue jay as it’s hunted by a hungry hawk. The acorn grows from seedling to sapling to tree through the ages. Through Cole’s black and white and intricately detailed art, and over time, we witness the myriad of creatures, big and small, who depend upon it for their survival. The littlest listeners will love discovering all the hidden critters in each spread, sort of like a nature’s “Where’s Waldo.” [nonfiction picture book, ages 4 and up]
The Blue Jays that Grew a Forest by Lynne Street, illustrated by Anne Hunter
Blue jays are also key players in Street’s book, which illustrates the mutualistic relationship between blue jays and oak trees. Acorns cannot travel far on their own, but as a favorite blue jay treat, they are dispersed when blue jays carry, cache, and stash them. In time, a new forest of oaks will sprout, thrive, and survive. Street’s lyrical and scientifically accurate language is thoroughly enriched by Hunter’s delightful and charming art. Just One Oak also features a spread dedicated to the blue jay-oak connection. [nonfiction picture book, ages 4 and up]
Treemendous: Diary of a Not Yet Mighty Oak by Bridget Heos, illustrated by Mike Ciccotello
Using a diary format, Heos’ punny voice tells an oak life cycle tale while Ciccotello’s cute and cheerful art welcomes readers in. The acorn character snuggles in for an underground snooze and sprouts in spring, growing and growing over time, and through the seasons into a mighty oak tree. Readers learn about the science behind the oak tree’s growth until it too can produce acorns many years later. [nonfiction picture book, ages 3 and up]
A Tree is a Home by Pamela Hickman, illustrated by Zafouko Yamamoto
Hickman’s book showcases the ways different parts of an oak tree, from its branches to its cavity to an underground burrow, shelter six different creatures: a raccoon, an acorn weevil, a gray squirrel, a blue jay, and a chipmunk, throughout the seasons. As a home to all of these animals, the oak tree is as cozy and inviting as Yamamoto’s art. [nonfiction picture book, ages 5 and up]
In closing, I’m really looking forward to reading Marilyn Singer’s Whose Tree Is This?: Poems About the Mighty Oak and Its Companions, with illustrations by Julian Plum. I love Singer’s poetry! Like Just One Oak, it explores the oak as a keystone species.
At the time of writing this post, the book has not yet been released, but Singer presents the poetic perspectives of thirteen different animals who rely upon it for sustenance and shelter. Here’s a line from the publisher’s website: “Acorns for eating, tree crooks for nests,/leaves that shelter many guests.”
What’s your favorite book about oak trees?
Just One Oak Giveaway!
Thanks to the generosity of Beach Lane Books, one lucky Pragmatic Mom reader will win a copy of Just One Oak! I know you’ll love Diana’s gorgeous art! All you need to enter is a US mailing address!
Thanks for letting me share my favorite books about oak trees, Mia!
Maria Gianferrari is a picture book reader/writer, animal-lover, and bird nerd. She writes books that honor our bonds with creatures both domestic and wild, and that celebrate urban ecosystems and the natural world around us. Maria’s newest releases are Just One Oak and Puffins!, both published in April 2026. Other recent titles include Rain and the Reading Horse, To Dogs, with Love, Fungi Grow (a Boston Globe Horn Book Honoree), Thank a Farmer, You and the Bowerbird as well as the companion books, Being a Cat & Being a Dog. Her book, Be A Tree!, won a Massachusetts Book Award Honor and has been translated into 16 languages. She grew up in Keene, NH, and lives with her family in Worcester, MA, where coyotes, bobcats and bears traverse her backyard.
Diana Sudyka is a Chicago based illustrator. Early in her career she created screen-printed posters for musicians including Andrew Bird, St. Vincent, and The Black Keys. She moved into the publishing world by illustrating several volumes of the best-selling series The Mysterious Benedict Society by Trenton Lee Stewart. Working mainly in gouache, watercolor, and ink, subject matter and aesthetic choices for her paintings are inspired by a passion for nature and science, as well as various folk-art traditions. Diana’s author-illustrator debut, Little Land, published in 2023. Her children’s illustration book work includes Dear Treefrog, by Joyce Sidman, Angela’s Glacier, by Jordan Scott, How to Find a Bird, by Jennifer Ward, as well as Fungi Grow and Just One Oak by Maria Gianferrari, among many others. Diana’s Instagram feed features her most current work, but a disproportionate number of pictures of lichens and moss as well. When not working in her studio, she gets outdoors as much as possible with her family. You can learn more at dianasudyka.com.
p.s. Related posts:
Supertree Grove in Singapore featured in Food for the Future
Bare Tree and Little Wind: A Story for Holy Week by Mitali Perkins
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My books:
Amazon / Signed or Inscribed by Me
Barbed Wire Between Us by Mia Wenjen, illustrated by Violeta Encarnación
- ⭐ Starred review from Kirkus
- ⭐ Starred review from Publishers Weekly
- ⭐ Starred review from School Library Journal
- Kirkus: The Most Anticipated Children’s Books of Spring 2026
Amazon / Signed or Inscribed by Me
- California Eureka Non-Fiction Gold Award
- Junior Library Guild Gold Selection
- Notable Social Studies Trade Books for Young People Winner (from National Council for the Social Studies and Children’s Book Council)
The Traveling Taco:
- California Eureka Non-Fiction Silver Award
- Notable Social Studies Trade Books for Young People Winner (from National Council for the Social Studies and Children’s Book Council)
- Reading Rockets’ Summer Reading Guide 2025
Amazon / Signed or Inscribed by Me
Amazon / Signed or Inscribed by Me
We Sing from the Heart: How the Slants® Took Their Fight for Free Speech to the Supreme Court
- ALSC Notable Children’s Book
- 2025 Carter G. Woodson Book Award Middle Level Honoree
- Orbis Pictus Recommended Book for Outstanding Nonfiction for Children
- 2024 Julia Ward Howe Prize for Children’s Literature Winner
- California Eureka Non-Fiction Award Honor Book
- Notable Social Studies Trade Books for Young People Winner (from National Council for the Social Studies and Children’s Book Council)
- Bank Street Best Children’s Books of the Year 2025
- Recommended Reading for the Social Justice Literature Award 2025 (International Literacy Association)
- Pennsylvania Mountain Laurel Book Award Nominee 2026-27
- Junior Library Guild Gold Selection
Amazon / Signed or Inscribed by Me
Amazon / Barefoot Books / Signed or Inscribed by Me
Food for the Future: Sustainable Farms Around the World
- ⭐ Starred review from School Library Journal!
- Junior Library Guild Gold selection
- Massachusetts Book Award Long List
- dPICTUS 100 Outstanding Picture Books of 2023
- Chicago Library’s Best of the Best
- 2023 INDIES Book of the Year Awards Finalist
- Green Earth Book Award Long List
- Nautilus Silver Winner, Nonfiction Children’s Picture Book
- Sunshine State Young Readers Award Orange Blossom List for Nonfiction
- Imagination Soup’s 35 Best Nonfiction Books of 2023 for Kids
Amazon / Signed or Inscribed by Me
Bank Street College’s The Best Children’s Books of the Year
Amazon / Signed or Inscribed by Me
Amazon / Signed or Inscribed by Me
Thanks, Mia!
Hello!
Thank you for this contest!
I absolutely LOVE the books you have selected about trees – especially Maria Gianferrari’s newest! I cannot wait to open the cover and see what is inside!
Elizabeth
Trees are my favorite! One tree book I love is Pando, but I have a lot of favorite tree books!
From the tip of its crown, down to the ground Just One Oak looks like a great book and one that I would love to share with my students.
I look forward to reading Maria’s latest picture book & these other highlighted oak-themed books.
Our family loves tree books (except for “The Giving Tree”–don’t get me started!!) and we love birds, so I am adding “The Blue Jays who Built a Forest” to the birthday list for my very-grown-up partner, who faithfully feeds the jays every day. 🙂 Thank you for the introduction to these wonderful tree books. We live amongst cedars and pines and wish we had oaks; I would love to gather acorns rather than pinecones for a change!
I love reading books about trees close to Earth Day. Maria’s book Be a Tree is one of my favorites! I also love Up in the Leaves.
Great list, thanks! We also love the picture book biography, “ The Tree Lady: The True Story of How One Tree-Loving Woman Changed a City Forever” by H. Joseph Hopkins.