Tree Is Nice Book

Perhaps rather parochially my favourite tree in the whole world is an oak tree aged a few hundred years that lives at the entrance to my daughter's property. And I have always had an interest in trees from a young age, particularly from my teenage years when my wife to be and myself used to picnic at Kew Gardens in London.

So when I saw 'A Tree Is Nice' I just had to own it! The illustrations by Marc Simont are particularly fetching and the story, while simplicity itself, gives a great understanding of what role a tree has in everyday life.

As a forest, they 'fill up the sky', they live besides rivers and in valleys, even just one tree is nice because, '... it has leaves. The leaves whisper in the breeze all summer long', playhouses are built in trees, apples are picked from trees, cats escape from dogs by running up a tree (and then have to be rescued by the Fire Brigade!), trees can have swings for children to play on or baskets of flowers hanging from them (or food for the birds even), cows shelter in trees' lee and picnics are taken in their shade.

After reading the book, or in the case of the youngsters featured in it, everyone wants to plant a tree and watch it grow and then proudly proclaim, 'I planted that tree.'

This is a delightful book and one which makes the reader appreciate the beauty of the tree even more.