How to Draw a Tree

Embracing geographic and seasonal variability, LaRochelle’s observational text coaches would-be artists using simple tactics for noticing. After a basic directive (“Go outside and find a tree”), suggestions encourage appreciation of each selected subject’s varied attributes, including texture, color, shape, leaves, branches, and more (“Some trees smell like a chest in your attic”). Featuring background textures, Muske’s undulating artwork emphasizes arboreal diversity, with scenes featuring nonrecurring children, depicted with varied skin tones, spending fall, winter, spring, and summer days among species such as a live oak, Norway spruce, and Joshua tree, shown in endpapers. Emphasizing perception over creative technique (drawing-specific instructions never materialize), the creators successfully underscore the importance of mindful attentiveness as a first step toward art-making. Ages 3–7. (Aug.)