Poetree

Caroline Pignat's first picture book is an intriguing blend of carefully composed verbal images, knit together with extraordinary visuals by the award-winning François Thisdale. The poem is about the yearly cycle in the life of trees. But it's also an intriguing poetic concoction. The initial letters of each line in each stanza spell out a word that pertains to the theme.

For example, in the section on spring, the vertical letters spell out: SEED, GERMINATE, SHOOT, ROOTS, LEAVES, FLOWERS. Th...