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   In “We Planted a Tree,” by Diane Muldrow, people across the world honor trees of all shapes and varieties, highlighting trees’ life cycles, and bringing to light how trees sustain the Earth.
   Readers are introduced to two families—one planting a tree in the backyard of their apartment complex in a busy city, the other pausing to appreciate a tree that’s grown tall behind their home on the African plains.
   The illustrations expand to include families celebrating trees in China, France and other locales. Though the countries are separated by many miles, the trees on their home roots inspire all with a universal message, “We planted a tree, and that one tree made the world better…We planted a tree and it grew up, and so did we.”
   Colorful, simple illustrations by Bob Staake give vivid life to the various countries and their people. Though his characters may have different colors of skin, all approach the world with wide-eyed wonder.

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   Totally original and creative—there are superlatives aplenty to describe “Redwoods,” a nonfiction book that’s captured honors for Jason Chin, its author/illustrator.
   The book begins when an Asian boy happens onto a book titled “Redwoods” on a bench in the subway. As soon as the boy opens the book, the story comes to life for him. When he reads that present-day redwoods can trace their ancestors back to Roman times, the boy finds himself seated next to a gladiator and toga-clad countryman. Unfazed, the boy reads on.
   Shock gets the better of him, when he leaves the subway and discovers his stop has delivered him smack into the middle of a redwood forest. There he learns all there is to know about “the tallest living things on the planet,” about how redwoods begin to grow from “a seed about the size of a tomato seed.”
   “Redwoods” is awesome with its informative text and fantastical illustrations. What a fun way to get facts about our giant tree buddies.

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   A Valencia orange tree on a vacant lot is center stage in “One Day and One Amazing Morning on Orange Street,” by Joanne Rocklin, a book about our connectedness to others and the world in which we live.
   Orange Street in Los Angeles has been home to an old orange tree for years, the only one left standing from the original grove. Ms. Snoops, the aged lady in the neighborhood, whose “memory had little holes in it,” recalls swinging from the tree’s limbs with Gertrude, her childhood friend.
   Now the elderly woman is a friend to the children who live there, each of whom has challenges to deal with. There’s Ali, whose little brother had to have brain surgery and isn’t recovering; Bunny, a compulsive worrier, Leandra a bossy girl upset that her mom is having a baby; and Robert, whose parents split up and wants more than anything to have his dad’s attention.
   Into this mix, the author tosses an orange construction cone, and a stranger, who hangs out under the tree. Soon, the threads of past and present knit themselves together in a story about the wisdom of the aged, the joy of youth, and the hope and comfort that nature provides.