Nature and Nurture
‘Wait! Wait!’ and ‘A Year Around the Great Oak’
From "Wait! Wait!"
By SARAH HARRISON SMITH
Published: July 24, 2013
One of summer’s great gifts is the chance to adapt ourselves to nature;
to slow down in the heat, to swim when the tide comes in, and to find
our place, at least briefly, in the wild. In “Wait! Wait!” and “A Year
Around the Great Oak,” two beautifully illustrated but very different
books, children engage with animals and the outdoors in ways that are
unpredictable, stimulating and ultimately confidence-inducing.
WAIT! WAIT!
By Hatsue Nakawaki
Illustrated by Komako Sakai
24 pp. Enchanted Lion Books. $14.95. (Picture book; infant to age 3)
A YEAR AROUND THE GREAT OAK
Written and illustrated by Gerda Muller
32 pp. Floris Books. $17.95. (Picture book; ages 4 to 12)
Related
Times Topic: Children's Books Reviews
From "A Year Around the Great Oak"
Previously published in Japan, “Wait! Wait!” tells its story through
acrylic and oil pencil illustrations. Hatsue Nakawaki’s very spare text,
intended for lap reading, describes in the simplest terms a toddler’s
encounters with the creatures he sees outside. “Wait! Wait!,” the child
says, or perhaps thinks, as a butterfly swoops past. A page later, the
butterfly has flown high up out of reach. Next a salamander pauses to
exchange a quizzical look and then wiggles out of sight between rocks.
Cats, found sunning themselves, run off as the child approaches with
open arms.
None of the animals obey the child’s repeated wish that they “wait.” But
the pictures, which have a very appealing 1970s look, and are mostly
colored in black, grays and gold on a white ground, show a calm child
whose wonder at each creature’s actions (leaping, wiggling, fluttering)
outweighs frustration. In the end, it is the delighted child who is
caught and hoisted onto the father’s shoulders for a better view. This
is a lovely book for very young children: Komako Sakai’s illustrations
convey tacit sympathy with the child’s perspective, and Nakawaki leaves
so much unstated that there is plenty left to discuss.
Altogether more substantial and fact-filled, “A Year Around the Great
Oak” was first published in Germany over two decades ago, and retains a
slightly foreign feeling in this English translation. Benjamin and his
younger sister, who appear to be about 9 and 7, visit relatives each
season over the course of a year. Their uncle works as a forester,
managing the land adjacent to the family’s home. On the children’s
first, autumnal trip they explore the woods with their young cousin, who
shows them his favorite tree, a huge old oak. “ ‘Three hundred years is
a long time,’ he said, ‘People don’t ever live much longer than one
hundred years. This tree has been growing for three times as long as
that!’ ”
The oak becomes the locus for gathering mushrooms, cross-country skiing,
measuring trunk growth and building a covert. There the cousins spy
badgers, squirrels, hawks, foxes, deer and rabbits. Gerda Muller, whose
work may be familiar from her other nature-imbued children’s books
(“Goldilocks and the Three Bears,” “Where Do They Go When It Rains?”),
draws each activity and animal with great detail and attention. Leaf
shapes are accurate, and the picture of the children making their
hideout from sticks and leaves is as good as a scouting manual; for
readers with access to woods this could prove to be a useful as well as a
handsome book.
One evening, the children’s uncle takes them to watch the animals
drinking from a pond, and Benjamin enjoys the experience so much he
ventures out by himself the next night. “He knew it wasn’t safe to go
into the forest on his own, but he really wanted to sit in the tree and
think one more time.” A loud noise crashing through the forest confirms
his fears, but the oak protects him until unexpected help arrives. The
boy faces no punishment for his adventure, just a talk “about going out
on his own,” and an invitation from his uncle to return again at the end
of the summer. “ ‘The forest will still be here.’”
Benjamin’s nighttime adventure brings realistic drama to this otherwise
quiet book, and deepens it into something like a growing-up story.
Benjamin may not be as tall or as old as the oak, but under its boughs
he has learned something about self-sufficiency and it limits. When the
children celebrate the oak with a birthday party, it’s clearly a rite of
passage for more than just the tree.