Just One Oak: What a Single Tree Can Be

Description: Three starred reviews!

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.

Brief description: Maria Gianferrari is a picture book reader/writer, tea-drinker, dog-lover, and birdwatcher. Maria writes books that honor our bonds with creatures both domestic and wild and that celebrate the natural world around us, including Fungi Grow and Just One Oak, illustrated by Diana Sudyka; Ice Cycle: Poems about the Life of Ice, illustrated by Jieting Chen; Being a Dog: A Tail of Mindfulness, illustrated by Pete Oswald; Bobcat Prowling, illustrated by Bagram Ibatouilline; and Be a Tree!, illustrated by Felicita Sala. She lives with her family in Massachusetts in a house encircled by trees. To learn more about Maria, visit her website: MariaGianferrari.com.

Review Quotes: *Gianferrari and Sudyka explore the many life forms and natural processes--both visible and invisible to the naked eye--that a single oak tree "nurtures and nourishes." From feeding and sheltering wildlife above- and belowground to producing oxygen and preventing soil erosion, and beyond, the oak touches everything around it, forming a micro-ecosystem of its own. Gianferrari's text, with its frequent alliteration, occasional rhyme, and refrain of "just one oak," constitutes an ode to the "beautiful and bountiful" tree's life-giving power. Sudyka's vibrant, painterly illustrations enrich the reading experience, zooming in and out as necessary to put a spotlight on different aspects of the oak-ecosystem.--Horn Book Starred "March / April 2026"