Button, Bucket, Sky

by Briggs Martin

Annie Livemore, her cat, and two of her friends collect acorns, carefully nurture them until they are big enough to be planted in the ground, and then grow old with all the oak trees they have planted.

32 pages, Hardcover

First published July 1, 1998

Reviews

[David · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is an interesting book that follows an elderly woman that enlists the help of two young neighbors to plant oak trees around her neighborhood after she senses the failing health of the oak tree in her front yard--the last one in the neighborhood. The story, written perhaps as a free verse poem, uses beautiful imagery and is broken up into three "chapters:" "Button," "Bucket", and "Sky." A nice example of the figurative language is this description of acorns: "We are picking up buttons--shiny brown buttons with oak tree songs inside." The trees grow, as do the children. I liked that the story connected old and young characters and the plot was very sweet. I was surprised by the fact that the main character, Annie Livemore, remained well and alive through the finish of the story--avoiding the stereotypical death/circle-of-life theme found in books with elderly characters (which seemed inevitable with a story about dying trees and planting seeds). At the very end of the story you'll find "Annie Livemore's Oak Tree Notebook" which gives step-by-step instructions on growing oak trees from acorns. The text would be good for older elementary aged students (2nd - 3rd grade I expect), and could be used when talking about trees, life-cycles, seeds, or even neighborhoods and responsible citizens.