This debut picture book from Eliza Wheeler makes an ideal end-of-year gift for the right teacher, as Miss Maple affirms her mission to send her seeds out into the world to blossom.
As August winds start to blow in fall, Miss Maple, donning her pink-beribboned straw hat, plants her seeds. All summer long, Miss Maple gathers orphaned seeds and prepares them "in her tall maple tree" for the following year's planting. As Miss Maple cleans the seeds, she sings her refrain, "Take care, my little ones... for the world is big and you are small." She takes the seeds on field trips, describes the rich soil of the riverbed and warns them to "stay clear of weedy characters," whose leaves mimic a hand-on-hips pose. At night, she reads by firefly light and bids the seeds goodnight.
In May, Miss Maple proclaims the seeds ready to "find roots of their own." She sends them off in maple seedling "helicopters," one at a time, within tiny thimble-size baskets. Wheeler sidesteps the pedantic by closing on a high note: "Even the grandest of trees once had to grow up from the smallest of seeds." The sentiment may be familiar, but the art is accomplished. The sky, the dryness of the land, the long shadows all telegraph August. One standout page resembles a scientist's notebook, with a drawing and clear label for each seed she's found, both usual (acorn, pumpkin) and unusual (water lily, lupine). --Jennifer M. Brown, children's editor, Shelf Awareness