Nice Work

A wise and tender story about the patience needed for a tree—and a friendship— to grow, from award-winning author Nicholas Day.

When it arrives in the spring, it isn’t a peach tree. It's a stick. Nice work, the boy tells his parents. You bought a stick. Even his friend Maya agrees: definitely a stick.

Soon, Maya is moving away, and the peach tree is still a stick. But with time and nurturing, the tree begins to grow and change through the seasons—and so does the boy. They are both stretching,...