The Pear Tree

by Meredith Hooper, Bee Willey

There is so much to look at and learn from this beautifully illustrated picture book. As well as a counting book it is also a guide to the seasons, a guide to the wildlife that live in the pear tree and it teaches the months of the year. Written in the lyrical and repetitive style of a well-known Christmas carol, it is a delightful book to read aloud and share with young children.

As the seasons pass the narrator, and the reader, are shown the pear tree in all its guises-- bare and covered in snow, blooming with blossom, bursting with fruit. One by one the creatures that live in the tree are introduced and can be spotted amongst its branches and in the area in which the tree grows. From one pigeon in a pear tree to 12 closed-up snails, the reader can spot the creatures as they go about their business in and around the tree: "On the first day of May / My sister showed to me / Five ladybirds / Four squirrels chasing / Three bees finding pollen / Two starlings bringing grubs / And a pigeon in a pear tree."

This is an unusual and highly effective counting picture book for young readers. (Ages 3 to 7) --Philippa Reece

25 pages, Hardcover

First published January 22, 1999

About the author

Meredith Hooper uses the storybook form in Who Built the Pyramid? to make the latest research accessible for a young audience. Meredith Hooper is an historian by training and the author of many books, ranging in subject from Antarctica to aviation, from the history of water to the history of inventions.
Hooper, born in 1939, graduated in history from the University of Adelaide, then studied imperial history at Oxford.

Reviews

[Christina Reid · Rating 4 out of 5]

I picked this up in a local second-hand bookshop originally attracted by the illustrations and then persuaded to buy it because it is a lovely animal counting book, with the pear tree represented in every month of the year and lots of living things to be found in each picture. This would be a lovely book to read-aloud and explore with a young child, with the interactive element of finding the living creatures making it engaging as well as educating children about the different seasons and the importance of appreciating nature.