A Tree Is Nice By Janice May Udry

Understanding A Tree Is Nice By Janice May Udry

Janice May Udry's A Tree Is Nice came out in 1968, the same year Maurice Sendak did his illustrations. It is one of those picture books that teaches environmental awareness through simple observation. The text is short enough for a preschooler to follow. The book walks a child through the ways trees are useful — shade, fruit, climbing, swings, and homes for birds. That was it. It was never controversial. It was just a book that a lot of parents picked up in the late 1960s and early 1970s. The book is essentially a list of tree benefits framed as a child's perspective. Udry writes in plain sentences. No fancy language. She says things like a tree is nice because it gives you shade on a hot day. That kind of thing. Sendak's illustrations are watercolor and pencil, the same medium he used for Where the Wild Things Are. They are softer than you might expect, less dark. The tone matches the text — observational, calm, slightly wistful. I remember trying to find a clean copy for my kid years ago. I bought a used one from a website and the binding was cracked near the spine. Every time you turned the page, it wanted to separate further. I ended up getting a library copy instead. The library copy was in better shape and cost nothing. If you are hunting for a first edition, know that they circulate around $15 to $40 in good condition. Not expensive, but not cheap either.

Where to Find and Read the Book

You have a few practical options. Most public libraries have it. If your local branch does not carry it, request an interlibrary loan and it usually shows up within a week. Amazon has paperback reprints from HarperCollins and a few other publishers. The ISBN for the common paperback edition is 006020287X. That is the one you will see most often. It was reprinted multiple times over the decades, so the cover designs vary between editions. For a digital version, the situation is trickier. Udry's estate does not appear to have released an official ebook. What you will find on sites like Project Gutenberg or archive.org are mostly user uploads that may or may not be complete. I checked a few of them myself. Some were missing pages. One had the illustrations in the wrong order. The safest bet is still the physical book or a library hold. If you need something immediate, check your local library's digital lending platform — sometimes they carry it through OverDrive or Libby, though availability depends on how many copies the library purchased for their digital collection. The book runs about 32 pages. Reading time is roughly five minutes for an adult, maybe fifteen to twenty if you are reading slowly with a young child who wants to look at every illustration. Sendak's pictures contain details you miss on the first pass. There are animals hidden in the background, weather changes between spreads, and seasonal shifts across the book. A lot of kids want to sit on that and go back over it several times.

What Makes This Book Different From Other Nature Picture Books

There are a lot of nature picture books. Most of them either talk down to kids or overload them with facts. A Tree Is Nice does neither. It trusts the child to notice things. Udry does not lecture. She presents observations. The approach is indirect in a way that actually works better than the alternatives. Kids absorb the message about trees being valuable without feeling like they are being taught a lesson. One thing people do not always catch is that the book is structured around a single tree. Not multiple trees in a forest. One tree. That matters because it grounds the examples in something concrete. A swing hangs from one branch. A bird builds a nest in one tree. The shade falls in one place. It makes the content digestible for a young mind. When I read it aloud to my nephew, he kept pointing at the same tree on each spread and tracking how it changed. He asked why the tree looked different in some pictures. That led to a conversation about seasons that lasted longer than the book itself. The illustrations are also worth paying attention to separately from the text. Sendak does not just decorate the pages. He adds information the words do not include. In one spread, the text mentions birds in a tree. The illustration shows three different species and a squirrel. In another, the text talks about shade. The illustration shows shadows moving across grass with a person underneath. These details give teachers and parents extra material to work with if they want to extend the reading.

Potential Downsides and Limitations

The book is not perfect. It is brief, maybe too brief for some audiences. If a child is already familiar with trees from living near woods or a large yard, they may find the content too basic. The examples are fairly conventional — swings, shade, fruit, bird nests. Nothing particularly surprising there. For kids with limited exposure to trees, it works well. For others, it might feel repetitive after the first couple of readings. Another issue is that the book does not address threats to trees or environmental problems directly. It celebrates trees. It does not discuss deforestation, pollution, or conservation. Some parents looking for an eco-education book may find that gap frustrating. It is not a flaw in the book itself — it was written in a different era with different intent — but it is something to be aware of. If you want a follow-up that touches on environmental action, you would need to supplement it with other material. The illustrations, while beautiful, use a watercolor style that some modern children may find dated compared to current picture book standards. That is subjective, but I have seen comments from parents who noted their kids preferred brighter, more saturated artwork. The Sendak style is subtle and muted in places. It rewards patient viewing.

How to Use This Book in Practice

If you are a parent or teacher, the simplest approach is to read it once outdoors if possible. Sit under a tree and read it there. The connection between the text and the real object makes it land better. Even a small backyard tree works. My kid wanted to touch every part of the tree after we finished — the bark, the leaves, the branches. That physical engagement reinforced what the book was describing. For classroom use, pair it with a hands-on activity. Have the kids draw their own favorite tree or write a sentence about why it is nice. The book models a kind of observation that is easy to replicate. You can also extend it into a season-tracking project where the same tree is drawn or photographed throughout the year. Sendak already does this implicitly across the spreads, so it feels like a natural extension rather than a separate exercise. There is also value in comparing this book to others in the same vein. Books like The Tree by Lois Ehlert or Whatever Next by Judith Kerr take different approaches. Ehlert uses collage and is more abstract. Kerr is more fantastical. Udry and Sendak's version sits somewhere in the middle — grounded but not documentary, gentle but not Disney-fied. Knowing where it fits helps you decide whether it is the right fit for a particular child or group.

Quick Reference

Author: Janice May Udry
Illustrator: Maurice Sendak
First published: 1968
Publisher: Harper & Row (original), HarperCollins (reprints)
ISBN: 006020287X (common paperback)
Pages: 32
Age range: 3 to 7 years old The book remains in print and continues to be used in elementary classrooms and by parents who want a short, effective introduction to appreciating trees. It does not try to do too much. It stays within its scope. That restraint is probably the main reason it has lasted this long.