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A mighty oak tree stands tall, sheltering animals and offering shade. It needs to spread its acorns to encourage other seedlings to germinate, and it gets assistance from an unexpected source: the busy blue jays! The jays rely on the acorns for food, and they’ll gather and store them by the thousands for winter snacking. They’ll hide them in the ground and under leaves, stashing them away from other hungry critters. Winter sees them gobble up their secret snacks, but even the cleverest blue jay forgets a few, and new oak trees soon sprout from the abandoned acorns, eventually forming a flourishing forest. This beautiful book cleverly covers a full year of the amazing arrangement, with attractive colored-pencil illustrations displaying each season in splendid detail. Close-ups of sprouting seeds are treated with the same care as aerial views of ever-expanding forests, and excellent and extensive back matter further fleshes out the information imparted by the lyrical text. An outstanding observation of a remarkable reciprocal relationship in the natural world.

Publishers Weekly
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The blue jay gets its due in this sharply written appreciation of the bird’s critically important symbiotic relationship with oak trees. A straightforward question opens—“How does the mighty oak tree create more oak trees?”—and the ensuing answer shines a spotlight on how nature’s perpetuation relies on interconnection and mutualism. The narrative unfolds seasonally, beginning in late summer as “blue jays perch in the canopy,/ watching and waiting for the acorns to ripen.” Rhythmic lines go on to describe an autumn harvest that sees the subjects stowing acorns in their throat pockets: “They fly one block, two blocks,/ over a farm or two,/ and hide their treasure.” After winter fast-forwards to spring, uncollected acorns sprout, and young jays grow into the “next blue crew.” Soft pen, ink, and colored pencil renderings have a fittingly feathered texture that enhances the careful detailing used to capture the birds and plant life alike. The magnitude of the blue jays’ contribution to forest health resounds in an admiring and conscientious portrait from Street, making her children’s debut, and Hunter (The Lonely Goose). Further information concludes. Ages 4–8. Author’s agent: Stephanie Fretwell-Hill, Red Fox Literary. Illustrator’s agent: Rosemary Stimola, Stimola Literary. (Aug.)

Kirkus
Copyright © Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

It takes an avian village to raise an oak tree. The problem? Acorns must travel out of the shadows of the oaks that produce them if they are to thrive, but they’re too heavy for the wind to blow them away. Enter the blue jays, for whom acorns are both a treat and pre-winter fuel. Street explains how the “blue crew” carry so many at once (“a few stowed in the throat pocket… / one in the mouth, another in the beak”). Other animals are hungry, too, so “the jays must work quickly,” gathering acorns and stashing them for later. The birds search for the buried acorns under snow, and the ones they miss sprout in spring. Nestlings eat insects; summer passes. Soon, “a scold of jays” begins collecting and burying acorns again. And over time, a new forest of oaks thrives. Active verbs (pries,hammers) and elegant imagery (“a flash of sapphire in the sun—blue white”) add resonance. A half dozen final pages explain the science behind the mutualism of oaks and blue jays, both keystone species, and describe several jay species. Hunter’s soft and subtle pen, ink, and colored pencil illustrations, both close-ups and from a distance, and from high and low perspectives alike, are as lyrical and lovely as the text. An eloquently told story of symbiosis. (bibliography)(Informational picture book. 4-8) Copyright © Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.