Mighty - by Henry Cole (Hardcover)

About the Book

"This stunning, profound book explores the life cycle of a tree-not just through a season but across decades-as well as the other living things that depend upon it. How can something stay itself and yet change and grow? The oak tree shows us how"--

Book Synopsis

This stunning, profound book explores the life cycle of a tree--not just through a season but across decades--as well as the other living things that depend upon it. How can something stay itself and yet change and grow? The oak tree shows us how.

Sometimes things happen by chance. A blue jay drops an acorn, a lucky acorn that happens to fall in just the right place and begins to grow.

Though it begins life as a tiny part of the forest floor, the acorn soon grows large enough to provide shelter for a fox, host for insects that in turn provide food for songbirds, and a home for many small creatures. Animals hibernate in its branches and among its roots, and humans rest in the cool shade it provides.

As generations of living things pass by the tree, the forest develops, and a town begins to grow. And the lucky tree is always there, though its form and size change.

In this picture book about the life cycle of a tree and the plants and animals that depend upon it, Henry Cole reminds us, in elegant prose and stunning black & white illustrations, of the importance of interconnectedness and the passage of time.

A Junior Library Guild Gold Standard Selection

Review Quotes

Cole takes readers on a gentle journey via this beautifully illustrated guide to a mighty oak tree's life. . . A storylike text, with tender turns and intricately laced drawings, this is the best of nature writing.
--School Library Journal (starred review)

In drawings of dazzling intricacy, the illustrator Henry Cole traces the flourishing of a single tree in 'Mighty: The Story of an Oak Tree Ecosystem' a picture book for children ages 4-8.
--The Wall Street Journal

Cole's intricately detailed pencil drawings fill every spread with dense foliage, populated by a wide variety of wildlife.
--Booklist

The life of an oak tree is beautifully depicted in this engaging informational picture book. . . Cole's detailed, fine-lined pen-and-ink illustrations bring depth and life to the natural elements on each spread.
--The Horn Book

A thought-provoking book with lavish artwork that rewards close, and closer, looks.
--Kirkus Reviews

n intricate b&w spreads, Cole traces the life of a single oak from sprouting acorn to mature tree, detailing its relationship with the changing world around it. . . It's easy to imagine touching the oak's bark and feeling its crisp leaves in this study of an organism living among others.
--Publishers Weekly

The book presents the expanse of the tree's life and the life it facilitates with a sense of awe. . . The intricate gray-scale illustrations, rendered in Micron pen on Bristol paper, deftly convey the forest environment, calling up the quiet of the tree's slow growth as well as the hustle and bustle of the forest denizens.
--Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books

About the Author

Henry Cole is the author and illustrator of over 150 books for children, including bestsellers such as And Tango Makes Three and books by Julie Andrews Edwards and Harvey Fierstein. A former fourth grade science teacher who grew up on a farm, he is a popular presenter who dazzles audiences of all ages.