Nell Plants a Tree was released in January of 2023, and it was one of the year's first great picture books. I imagine that it was a rewarding challenge for illustrator Daniel Miyares to bring Anne Wynter's text to life in pictures on the page. It is a beautifully constructed text that weaves two timelines about a family and a majestic pecan tree. And it's a text that asks the illustrations to do some heavy lifting.

The book features a loving Black family — grandparents, their adult children, and a set of grandchildren. The cousins love to run and play outside, and they especially enjoy playing in the big pecan tree and its cool shade. They climb it. They spot a nest with eggs. They gather pecans and bake a pie with their grandmother. One of the children loves to sit under it and read. But none of this could have been possible if their grandmother, whom we see as a girl in spreads that are interspersed throughout the present-day action, hadn't picked up a seed and buried the sprout. That one seemingly minor action affected the generations that came after her — and brings them abundant joy.

In the hands of a lesser illustrator, this book could have been confusing. But Miyares visually guides us with regard to the timelines: present-day elderly Nell with her family around her and Nell as a girl, who nurtured the growing plant and then planted the tree with a friend. Miyares accomplishes this with palette choices — particularly clothing and its colors. Young Nell, for instance, wears a mustard-colored dress, and older Nell's dress is the same color. The friend who helps Nell plant the growing tree wears brown pants, a white shirt, and suspenders. So does Nell's elderly husband, which tells us she married the childhood friend that helped her tend lovingly to the tree.

Let's talk about two spreads, in particular, that demonstrate what Miyares is doing here:

First is one in which Miyares, in just two vignettes, manages to take us through decades. It's a spread noting that the tree "grows and grows." In the vignette on the verso, we see Nell as a woman, watering the tree. Her husband plays with two children, one a baby. In the second vignette on the recto, the tree is larger and lusher, and we see three children — in blue, red, and pink shirts, respectively. Graceful line work shows roots in the ground, expanding (much like the family above them) in the second vignette. Just before this spread, we had seen Nell and her friend/future husband as kids. They had planted into the ground the tree Nell had initially nurtured in a pot. They place it near the house we know elderly Nell still lives in.

In the striking spread that follows, we see an especially evocative painting of the tree; behind it, warm rose colors fill the sky at sunset. The family dines at a table under the tree's branches. The tree dominates the spread. Its trunk is filled with colors and patterns that represent this family: There is a red patch, a blue patch, a pink patch (for each child). There is a mustard-colored patch that looks like the patterns on Nell's dress when she was young. There is a darker brown the color of the pants that belong to Nell's husband. There is even a floral pattern you see in Nell's childhood bedroom.

Needless to say, this is a book that rewards observant readers. Not that any Calling Caldecott readers would ever make the mistake of rushing through a picture book — I know you all love poring over the art — but if you were to do so, you'd miss many rich details.

In picture books, the illustrations say what the words do not. Miyares's illustrations not only expand upon Wynter's words — they find a space, as Sendak used to put it, where they go further with the words — but they also provide information essential to the story. If the text were merely read to us, we'd be lost. Miyares's gouache and collage illustrations make it clear that there are two timelines here — and that the decision on the part of one child to simply plant a seed has had satisfying and bighearted repercussions for the future.

[Read The Horn Book Magazine review of Nell Plants a Tree]