In the forest, an oak tree shelters squirrels and ants, toadstools and molds, slugs and snails. Toppled in a thunderstorm, the tree becomes a huge log, still serving as home and hunting ground for various creatures as it slowly rots and changes. Eventually, the log becomes a mound of earth, where an acorn falls, sprouts, and grows into an oak tree that grows tall, shelters creatures, then crashes to the forest floor. And becomes another giant log. Teachers seeking books on the deciduous forest or predators and prey will welcome Pfeffer's simply explained depiction of the tree's cycle. The striking illustrations are collages of papers realistically painted and cut into leaves, insects, and other elements of forest life, then shaped, layered, and photographed for this picture book. Just right for primary science shelves. (Reviewed September 15, 1997)

A quiet text describing the abundant environments and inhabitants within oak tree limbs and logs is well matched with life-like paper collage that creates a textured look. The narrative details how a giant tree topples during a storm, becomes a giant log on the forest floor, then decomposes, becoming soil in which a seedling oak sprouts and grows into a giant tree.

K-Gr 3--An attractive introduction to the life, death, and decay of an oak tree. The simple, informative text presents the complex cast of characters residing in or on the living tree as well as the decomposing log--from woodpeckers, squirrels, and porcupines to carpenter ants, millipedes, slugs, and fungi. The verbal descriptions of this rich ecosystem are enhanced by striking illustrations of three-dimensional paper sculptures, often so realistic as to seem to be preserved natural specimens. Although this ground has been covered in Alvin Tresselt's The Gift of the Tree (Lothrop, 1992), a reincarnation of The Dead Tree (Atheneum, 1972; o.p.); and James Newton's Forest Log (Crowell, 1980; o.p.), Pfeffer's gentle, lucid text and Brickman's superb illustrations certainly merit inclusion in most collections.--Patricia Manning, formerly at Eastchester Public Library, NY