My Dad Is a Tree
by Jon Agee; illus. by the author
Preschool, Primary    Rocky Pond/Penguin    40 pp.
5/23    9780593531372    $18.99
e-book ed.  9780593531389    $10.99

While her father does yard work, ­Madeleine stands still, arms outstretched. She’s pretending to be a tree, “because a tree gets to stay outside all day long!” When Dad agrees to join in the imaginative play (“only for a minute”), a baby owl falls asleep on his shoulder, a robin builds a nest in his hair, a spider spins a web in his armpit, a squirrel slides an acorn into his shirt pocket, and more. Then a kite flies into his face, rain starts to fall, and it gets dark. Dad insists that they go inside, but then the baby owl on his shoulder wakes up. It joins its mother in a real tree, and father and child bond over witnessing this moment in nature. Madeleine’s goal has been achieved too: “We got to stay outside all day long!” Agee keeps the compositions and dialogue uncluttered and unfussy (“Dad, you are a very good tree!”), and children will delight in the visual hyperbole—the growing number of creatures who pile on Dad. This entertaining story expresses what children know so well: playing outside can be filled with surprises.

From the May/June 2023 issue of The Horn Book Magazine.