Just One Oak - Perfect Picture Book Friday #PPBF + Giveaway

2 minutes ago
4 min read

Being an avid bird and tree lover, I found this nonfiction ode to an oak tree to be an amazing gift to readers. It is lyrical, gorgeously illustrated, and packed with interesting and intriguing facts about oak trees and their role as a keystone species in protecting and nourishing flora, fauna, and the enviroment. Combining stunning detailed art, poetic writing, and lots of science, this is a great book for readers of all ages and interests.

Book cover - an oak tree, just starting to change fall colors, with a squirrel, racoons, blue jay, and owl in its branches. And a deer standing behind it.

Just One Oak

Author: Maria Gianferrari

Illustrator: Diana Sudyka

Publisher: Beach Lane Books (April 7, 2026)

Ages: 4 - 8

Nonfiction

Themes:

Tree, conservation, environment, keystone species, habitat, and biology.

Synopsis:

Explore an oak tree, from its leafy crown to its roots underground, and learn all the amazing ways it supports the animals, plants, and habitat where it lives in this “satisfyingly comprehensive and appreciative” (Publishers Weekly, starred review) nonfiction picture book companion to the award-winning Fungi Grow.

An oak tree is so much more than meets the eye. From tiny fungi to mighty mammals, this amazing tree contains a whole world.

For insects and birds, the oak’s leaves, branches, and bark are a home. For bears and squirrels, the thousands of acorns the oak produces are a nutritious superfood. Owls, deer, foxes, and many more creatures are drawn to the rich and healthy environment an oak creates. Because of a single oak tree, its many neighbors flourish.

Opening Lines: Just One Oak . . .

from the tip

of its crown

down to the ground,

with roots all around,

sustains so very

many creatures,

from the teeny-tiny . . .

to the big and mighty What I LOVED about this book:

The succinct and playful lyrical text combines with a wonderful illustration to highlight a few of the animals which interact with oak trees in a mutualistic relationship for their survival. I love the ever so slight tinge of red in a few leaves and the acorns all around the base which hint at the coming of fall. And the guide-like labeling of the various oaks, animals, and fungi throughout the book.

Internal spread - a massive oak tree, with a tiny hint of red in a few leaves. As a squirrel runs toward its base, two blue jays swooping up, two mice collect acorns, an owl perched on a branch, and a black bear stands next to it.

Text © Maria Gianferrari, 2026. Image © Diana Sudyka, 2026.

I love Maria Gianferrari's use of the refrain "Just one oak . . ." to take the reader on a lively and stunning life-cycle journey of the Oak tree and its role as a keystone species and important part of the the planet's ecology. Then, setting the pattern, a concise lyrical text explores how the oak "clings to its crown of leaves" until letting them "swirl off in spring," and a side bar explains the science and the theories associated with marcescence. I love that Diana Sudyka uses the tree to divide winter on the left and spring on the right, using both the tree's appearance and weather conditions.

Within the framework of the seasons, the book explores the interactions of moth and butterfly caterpillars, spiders, nuthatches, chickadees, creepers, and woodpeckers with the oak trees. Diana Sudyka's gorgeous illustrations of the birds, zoomed-in spots, and various oak species are full of so many wonderful details and culminate in two full-page spreads showing the way the oak tree "nourishes and nurtures above . . . and below." Look back at the interview with Maria Gianferrari and Diana Sudyka to see almost wordless spread of the amazing world beneath the leaf litter, which make up the "brown food web."

Internal spread - the base trunk of an oak tree surrounded by fallen leaves, with a snail, grasshopper, lacewing, spider, cicada, butterfly, wasp, toad, salamander, treehopper, and a robin with a worm.

Text © Maria Gianferrari, 2026. Image © Diana Sudyka, 2026.

Pausing for a moment, colorful cutaway views of an acorn beginning to sprout and the intricate root structure of a mature oak tree offer a "hidden" underground look at an oak tree's growth cycle. Before the book continues to explore ways oak trees (and their acorns) provide food and even shelter for a number of animals. With the sidebar highlighting some of the 100 animals who rely on acorns for their survival.

Internal spread - an oak tree, with a woopecker peeking out of a hole and acorns spilling out of a split in its trunk, is surrounded by fallen leaves covered in acorns, an opossum, a titmouse, turkey, bobwhites, vole, chipmunk, red squirrel, and two deer.

Text © Maria Gianferrari, 2026. Image © Diana Sudyka, 2026.

There's a fun, one time, shift in the refrain, which plays with the interrelationship of the oak and the blue jay. As an extra bonus, the illustrations feature different oak trees - the red oak, white oak, live oak, and pin oak. Diana Sudyka captures the subtle differences in the growth habit, bark, and leaf structure of the various oaks. I was excited that she also highlighted a scrub oak surrounded by three scrub jays, a javenlina and its three babies, and a number of cactus. What a great way to to highlight some of the varied environments that these oaks live in and the various flora and fauna they interact with.

The book also looks at the numerous environmental benefits which oak trees offer humans and the planet itself. The ending is perfect for this lovely ode to oak trees, with its circle back to the beginning and additional stunning illustrations with even more animals (and a few kids) who rely on and enjoy oak trees. Back matter includes a wonderfully illustrated life cycle diagram, general and species specific information in "Hooray for the Humble Oak" & a fun call to action in "How Can You Help: Oak Tree Regeneration." This is a loving tribute to the "beautiful and bountiful," and extrememly important Oak tree.

Resources:

make your own majestic oak tree paper sculpture or plant your own acorn in a pot and watch your oak tree grow.

gather oak leaves and acorns. Create a nature and hand drawn collage an oak tree. If you don't have oaks where you live, draw oak leaves on colored paper and acorns on carboard and make an oak collage, too.

Photos of nature art - an acorn leaf person and an acorn spiral. © Childsplayabc.

make outdoor art, take a photo, then leave the leaves and acorns for the animals.

check out the book's activity kit.

🎈🎉 GIVEWAY for Just One Oak: What a Single Tree Can Be 🎉🎈

Maria Gianferrari is offering one lucky reader a book!

- Simply comment below or on Wednesday's interview post (or both) to be entered in the random drawing on May 15th.

- Be sure to say where (if) you shared the post (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, or Bluesky), and I'll add additional entries for you.

- Sorry US residents only.

If you missed my interview with Maria Gianferrari and Diana Sudyka on Wednesday, find it (here).

This post is part of a series of blog posts by authors and KidLit bloggers called Perfect Picture Book Fridays. For more picture book suggestions and resources see Susanna Leonard Hill's Perfect Picture Books.