The Horn Book Guide

PICTURE BOOKS

Reynolds, Shauna LaVoy

Poetree

32 pp. | Dial | March, 2019 | Trade ISBN 978-0-399-53912-1 $17.99

(2) K-3 Illustrated by Shahrzad Maydani. Young poetry-lover Sylvia writes a poem about spring and ties it to a birch tree. The next day in its place is a poem that Sylvia believes the tree wrote to her. When a school bully shows up at the park, the two discover that they've been writing to each other. Graphite-pencil and watercolor illustrations balance white space with pastel colors and provide subtle foreshadowing in this gentle tale.

Reviewer: Julie Hakim Azzam | Horn Book Magazine Issue: March, 2019