The Oak Inside the Acorn

Book Description

It was hard for Little Acorn to believe he would ever be a big, strong oak tree. Soon Little Acorn grew into Little Oak. But now what was he to do? He couldn't grow oranges like the orange tree or flowers like the rose bush. He just grew and grew until he became Big Oak, and his branches were big and strong-but still he didn't know what he was to do. Then one day Big Oak found that his strong branches were just right for a very special purpose. The Oak Inside the Acorn is the story of the miracle inside each of us. For within every child is the special person God created, just waiting to grow.

Customer Reviews:

The Oak Inside The Acorn by Max Lucado.......2007-04-19

Letting go of your childhood is hard to do, and a bit scary. In The Oak Inside the Acorn, nature forces Little Acorn to let go of his mother's nurturing branches and begin a life of his own. Little Acorn is not sure what he is suppose to be. He can't bare fruit like the orange trees and he has no beautiful blooms or sweet scents like the flowers. A farmer plants him in the family's back yard, and there he grows bigger and taller every year, right along with a little girl. When the little girl grows into a young lady, Big Oak uses one of his own little acorns to teach her to be what God wants her to be.

What I Liked: I like the lesson, to be what God intended us to be.

What I Disliked: I was a little disappointed with this book. This author is one of my favorites, but the message in this book was simply not as strong as I had anticipated. The message was clear, it just didn't reach out and grab me like most of his other books do.

Age Appeal: 4-8

Overall Rating: Very Good.

Loretta from Christian Children's Book Review

A great book.......2007-01-09

This is a really great book. Max Lucado has done it again.
Anyone, any age, facing decisions can appreciate this story. The little acorn fears leaving its comfortable home. But in leaving finds out that even though it does not offer fruit or flowers it has a lot to give. Great book for going to kindergarten, college, or a job change.

The oak inside the acorn.......2006-12-29

This is a beautifully illustrated book. The text reveals how we as parents, and teachers can teach children to let go of us and learn to grow based on those things they have learned. It also reveals the parental responsibility to teach and prepare our children for the world in which they live, giving them strong roots and support. I loved it.
Karen

Average customer rating:

Oaks of Asia
Yu. L. Menitsky , Iu. L. Menitskii , and Andrei Aleksandrovich Fedorov
Manufacturer: Science Publishers
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 1578082293

Average customer rating:

Well-Burnished Love of Knowledge
Read this book through, and it will always be with you
Fascinating
Oaks Compose the Frame of Civilization.
recommended

Oak: The Frame of Civilization
William Bryant Logan
Manufacturer: W. W. Norton
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0393327787

Book Description

From ink to sailing ships, a biography of the essential tree. "A dazzling book, full of knowledge and rare wisdom, too."—Thomas Pakenham, author of Remarkable Trees of the World

Professional arborist and award-winning nature writer William Bryant Logan deftly relates the delightful history of the reciprocal relationship between humans and oak trees since time immemorial—a profound link that has almost been forgotten. From the ink of Bach's cantatas, to the first boat to reach the New World, to the wagon, the barrel, and the sword, oak trees have been a constant presence throughout our history. In fact, civilization prospered where oaks grew, and for centuries these supremely adaptable, generous trees have supported humankind in nearly every facet of life. "With an unabashed enthusiasm for his subject" (Carol Haggas, Booklist) Logan combines science, philosophy, spirituality, and history with a contagious curiosity about why the natural world works the way it does. At once humorous and reverent, "this splendid acknowledgment of a natural marvel" (Publishing News) reintroduces the oak tree so that we might see its vibrant presence throughout our history and our modern world. 30 illustrations.

Customer Reviews:

Well-Burnished Love of Knowledge.......2007-05-27

A sweeping traversal of the oak's progress through history side by side with humankind, Logan's book is a far more satisfying essay in ethnobotany than many books aimed at a general audience. His deep knowledge of botany, forest history, and civilization informs every page. His prose is fluid and nuanced, and he interweaves his themes in wholly satisfying fashion.

Read this book through, and it will always be with you.......2007-02-06

This book is most like the "New Yorker" at it's best. Which was when a writer looks at some prosaic part of life and opens his eye wide; then writes about it clearly, with the full power and the real art of a bright and deep understanding of the utter complex beauty of the seemingly simple. Mr Logan, please do more.

Fascinating.......2006-05-05

This is a book that I would have liked to have written myself! It is a wonderful tale about the place of oaks throughout civilization. I found the linking of so many European family names to oaks and other trees very fascinating. The descriptions of the wooden structures, coppicing, early inks, acorns as food, oaks as foundation for many early technologies, and many other details brought a richness to the history of our ancestors and the beginnings of civilization. I live in an oak-hickory region of the eastern U.S., and this book has given me a greater appreciation of our national treasure.

Oaks Compose the Frame of Civilization........2005-11-19

No tree has been more useful to human beings than the oak. In most of the temperate world, oak is the primary, the 'titular tree of the forest.' What is most impressive about the oaks is that you can go from Massachusetts to Mexico City and find them readily available. When all the other trees were cut down to make room for farm fields, some of the oaks were left to make the boundaries.

The PTA uses the oak leaf and acorn as their symbol of strength and ability to endure. There are many different types of oak, like the California white oak, the Valley Oak, the Live Oak in the South; the Angel Oak in North Carolina is a version of the live oak with hollow trunks making it the easiest wood to split and shape. Memory, reason, and skill wove a world of oak. The people understood, valued, and worshipped the tree that was 'their most intimate compannion' and source of much of thier livelihood.

An illustration shows the different acorns, from the Northern Red Oak, Black Jack Oak, Sawtooth Oak, Scarlet & White Oaks, and the Holm Oak. The first oak was discovered in Thailand; sine then, they have spread to Europe, Asia, North America, and Mexico. He gives an analogy to the Eiffel Tower and an oak as being their internal structures. Eiffel used a skeleton of iron with an empty space to create a form similar to the sixty-five-million-year history of the oaks. The Eiffel Tower is one large skeltal iron cone. The mature oak is composed of hundreds and hundreds of cones from the roots, trunk, to the branches. They are similar in strength and strength, and yet dissimilar as to the reason for their being on this earth.

William Bryant Logan has previously written DIRT: THE ECSTATIC SKIN OF THE EARTH. "A great tree infuses empty space with memory and turns it into a place." On a summer day, it is up to ten degrees cooler in the shade of a great oak. They were removed from the Whittle Compound which the U.S. Govt. now calls their own because of the roots, I was told, and after a big hullaboloo from some of the citizens, replaced with the dogwood. This town does not like trees or birds, and more and more asphalt pavement is replacing the cooling branches of trees which create oxygen. Thanks to my years of volunteer work for the PTA, I have grown to appreciate the tall, strong Oak tree for all it means to such a magnificent organization.

recommended.......2005-08-14

i found this book well written, easy to read and full of interesting aspects. i must admit that the section on using oak to build with that got into the details of cuts and joints was a bit hard to follow but all in all i now understand and appreciate the value and importance of the oak to civilization. so i encourage and recommend this very enjoyable book.

America's Famous and Historic Trees: From George Washington's Tulip Poplar to Elvis Presley's Pin Oak

Average customer rating:

companion book to an inspirational project
Jeff's Trees
America's Famous and Historic Trees
Organic Historicism
The Very Best

America's Famous and Historic Trees: From George Washington's Tulip Poplar to Elvis Presley's Pin Oak
Jeffrey G. Meyer , and Sharon Linnea
Manufacturer: Houghton Mifflin
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0618068910

Amazon.com

Nurseryman Jeffrey Meyer founded the Famous and Historic Trees Project as a way of preserving and propagating the past. The project began after his son came to him with an acorn fallen from Jacksonville, Florida's "Treaty Live Oak"--a vast old tree growing in the spot where the Timucuan tribe sat for tribal councils. Meyer took the acorn home and planted it in his backyard. "From that little acorn also germinated the idea of growing descendants of important trees," he notes.

America's Famous and Historic Trees tells the stories of various trees that Meyer and his cohorts rescued or propagated: oftentimes, when trees were going to be cut down, he and his workers headed off the bulldozers, rescuing the tree with their massive tree hoe. Other trees--like the Indian Marker Pecan in southeast Dallas--were propagated before they died. Some of the ancestor trees still stand in their historic places--like Elvis Presley's Pin Oaks on the grounds of Graceland. Chapters here follow the trials and tribulations of specific trees, and end with "how to propagate" instructions for a wide variety of species: sycamore, cottonwood, bur oak, magnolia. This book is not about photographs--what images are included are simply of big trees alongside houses or suburban developments, awkward and misplaced, like an elegant old man in a multiplex. Meyer hopes to inspire his readers to plant and nurture forests that will outlive them, and to rescue trees from the unknown forces of the future by revering their pasts. --Emily White

Book Description

Like many residents of Jacksonville, Florida, the Jeffrey Meyers family liked to picnic under the city's magnificent Treaty Live Oak. When their toddler handed them an acorn from the tree, Meyers, a nurseryman, planted it in their back yard.
That acorn was the inspiration for an immensely popular project, America's Famous & Historic Trees, sponsored by American Forests, the country's oldest nonprofit conservation organization. Through this program, Meyers and his volunteers have collected seeds from more than a thousand different historic trees, which are grown to sapling size in the project's nursery. The descendants of these famous trees have been planted on the grounds of state capitols, in schoolyards, and in back yards across the country.
In this fascinating book, Meyers tells the stories of seventeen historic trees, describes their role in America's history, and tells how their seeds were collected and their offspring propagated. For readers who want to grow a replica of an important tree themselves, each chapter contains instructions for planting the seeds of that particular species.
Among the trees in this book are the Indian Marker Pecan, dating back to the 1600s, when Comanche warriers would mark a good camping spot by tying a young pecan tree to the ground. At the other end of the time line is the Moon Sycamore, grown from seeds that traveled to the moon in 1971 on Apollo 14.
Trees associated with presidents are George Washington's Tulip Poplar, Abraham Lincoln's Gettysburg Address Honey Locust, Andrew Jackson's Southern Magnolia (planted at the White House in memory of his wife), and John F. Kennedy's Post Oak, which grows beside his grave at Arlington National Cemetery. Most of the original trees still stand, but in some cases all that remains of their place in history are the seeds propagated by Meyers and his group. These include the last Johnny Appleseed Rambo Apple tree and the last Lewis and Clark Cottonwood.

Customer Reviews:

companion book to an inspirational project.......2002-12-17

Nurseryman and author Jeffrey Meyer started the project called America's Famous and Historic Trees, wherein said trees are rescued for posterity through seed propagation. Seventeen specimens are discussed, each featured in a chapter that relates the tree's historic significance, botanical description and instructions for propagation and placement of the tree. There is one color photograph of each of the seventeen trees, with many small black-and-white photos and drawings. Initially I was disappointed that the book did not take more pains to represent these trees more lovingly with good color photography, but the inspiration is in the text and the companion project, and one is struck by the brilliant simplicity of Meyer's idea for preserving these lovely old giants.

Jeff's Trees.......2001-05-18

What a thrill to find Jeff Meyer's book at Amazon and Barnes& Noble! I had no idea he was working on one - and one so comprehensive as this. I knew he was extremely involved in the historic tree/seed program and research. There is also a very interesting documentary on this subject that Jeff appeared in and advised on, which was aired on PBS this year. His mother, Joanne, has been a strong influence on Jeff in this field. She is a tireless member of The Garden Club of America and, by her efforts, raised the conciousness of many.This book is a fine explanation of all the work that has been done to preserve history, as well as to make us more aware of how important beautiful trees are to our quality of life on this planet. The photography is marvellous and the book is a wonderful read, as well as a great coffee table book for just a quick pickup. We all love a "picture book", don't we?

America's Famous and Historic Trees.......2001-04-27

Here is a book that combines a love of trees with famous American individuals to make an outstanding addition to any book collection. The author, Jeffrey Meyer, gives an account of 17 of the most noted trees and the historic persons associated with them. From the Indian (Comanche) Marker Pecan or George Washington Tulip Poplar to John F. Kennedy=s Post Oak or Elvis Presley=s Pin Oak, Meyer goes through pages of American history to pick out some the most significant figures of the time (Patrick Henry, Lewis and Clark, Johnny Appleseed, Frederick Douglass, Wyatt Earp, etc) and the trees (Osage Orange, Cottonwood, Rambo Apple, White Oak, Black Walnut, etc) that meant so much to them. In so doing, he provides the reader with a fine book, easy to read, beautifully published, with magnificent black/white and color photos and illustrations, and sidebars on how and where to grow the particular tree. As a idea and as a published work, America=s Historic Trees ranks in the top five per cent of books I would urge all to read and enjoy.

Organic Historicism.......2001-04-26

I bought, "America's Famous And Historic Trees" as an Arbor Day gift for an old friend who loves all things trees. In looking it over, I decided to buy another one for myself because it's just too good not to have. The author of the book, Jeffrey G. Meyer is a latter day Johnny Appleseed who has been planting trees successfully since he was five years old. I loved all of the stories, particularly the Elvis Presley and George Washington portions. This is not only a fascinating read, it

contains really valuable information on how to actually grow trees from seeds. This is also an excellent book for all ages.

The Very Best.......2001-04-25

America's Famous and Historic Trees is a wonderful book that seamlessly blends history with horticulture. I found the biographies of the trees immensely interesting. The John F. Kennedy tree story was particularly touching. Equally apealling were the various descriptions of "how to", grow your own trees from seeds. I never realized how difficult this could be without the right information. This book is a must for every home gardener and it might just teach you something you didn't know about history.

Average customer rating:

Educational and beautifully illustrated

Oak Tree
Gordon Morrison
Manufacturer: Houghton Mifflin/Walter Lorraine Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0395956447

Book Description

As the oak tree blossoms, robins and squirrels begin to build their nests, bees fly in and out of their hive, and the tree comes to life. Not only is the oak a living thing itself, it is also a habitat for other living creatures that depend on it for nesting, food, and shelter. Readers follow the tree and its inhabitants through seasons of flowering, leafing and fruiting, the return to a deep winter sleep, and the springtime reawakening -- completing a cycle which has gone unbroken for more than one hundred years.

Customer Reviews:

Educational and beautifully illustrated.......2002-08-22

Gordon Morrison's "Oak Tree" tells a simple story. It opens with an oak tree reviving and putting out buds in springtime. Morrison follows the majestic tree through all the seasons of the year, and depicts the diverse community of animals that live in and around it: the mourning cloak butterfly, red-tailed hawk, downy woodpecker, gray squirrel, honeybees, skunks, tree crickets, gray tree frog, and more.

Book Description

One stormy day a strong wind rages through the forest, causing an old oak tree to bend and sway. Lightning strikes; the tree crashes to the ground. Now it's a giant log.

In this fascinating book, author Wendy Pfeffer and illustrator Robin Brickman introduce readers to they life cycle of a tree. The informative, lyrical text is complemented by stunning, three-dimensional paper sculptures that showcase the forest ecosystem, inspiring readers to take a close look at the trees -- and logs -- in their own backyards.

Customer Reviews:

A Nature Center Must Have.......2005-07-24

I absolutely love this book and have used it with a variety of ages. Not only is the information clear and accurate, but the illustrations are outstanding. They are done all in paper (watercolored first) and are photographs of 3D "dioramas". Not only can you use this book to introduce life cycles, decomposition, etc. but you can use it as a lead in to some great art projects!

Georgeous Ecology/ Life Lesson.......2004-08-02

My 2 year old daughter loves this book, and so do I. The drawings are incredible (more so when you read that they are completely in water color), the text is beautiful and worth reading again and again(even though we often just marvel at the pictures and don't read all the text at my daughter's age), and what I so appreciate is the highly accurate description of log ecology,that is done so at a level exciting and accessible to a child.

If you aren't well-versed in the ecology of rotting logs, this will be a great resource for you as a parent, as well, prior to "field trips" to the woods!

Read this book and then take a walk in a forest!.......2000-04-19

"A Log's Life" is a little masterpiece of children's literature that can become a child's favorite book. The amazing paper-sculpture photo illustrations of Robin Brickman and the sparse but powerful alliterative language of author Wendy Pfeffer unite to tell a important ecological story about the life OF a log and the life IN a log. No wonder this book won the 2000 Giverny Award for best children's science picture book! What's fun for children is searching for and finding the organisms in Brickman's artwork on succeeding pages, once each has been initially introduced in the text. And later, when they hike in the woods with their parents, they can actually SEE this story come alive in nature itself.

Average customer rating:

Educational and interactive literature.

The Tree That Would Not Die
Ellen Levine
Manufacturer: Scholastic
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: School & Library Binding

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ASIN: 0590437240

Customer Reviews:

Educational and interactive literature........1999-05-06

When I heard a librarian read this book to a group of fourth graders, I believed this librarian threw a great opportunity to use this book as an educational facility for these students and others to come. I am a teacher, and once I heard this book, my heart lit up with joy. This book does not stop when it is read to the students. We can proceed by teaching them about our country's history, environmental issues, social issues, and trees in general. We can help students understand the importance of trees to every day life (oxygen) and putting trees into good use such as paper, pencils, even gum. I will truly use this book to its fullest allowing students to appreciate not only the issues in this book but also providing them with the beauty of literature. This book will deliver the joy of reading.

Average customer rating:

Excellent for identification, but not for general information
An excellent reference for identifying Oaks
best short guide to North American oaks

Oaks of North America
Howard A. Miller , and Samuel Lamb
Manufacturer: Naturegraph Publishers
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

ASIN: 0879611375

Book Description

This book details the history and uses of oaks in Part I. Part II is Eastern Oaks and Part III is on Western oaks, each with information on growth habitat and identification.

Customer Reviews:

Excellent for identification, but not for general information.......2007-07-13

The book does have an introduction talking about the broad classifications of types of oaks, history of oak usage, historic management of oak forests, etc. But this introduction is short, and then the book gets into the nitty-gritty of identification. Not just red vs. white, but every single documented variant the author found in his extensive research. For all but one of these oaks, the author visited and examined a live specimen himself.

An excellent reference for identifying Oaks.......2006-08-04

I highly recommend this book to anyone who needs to identify then many species of Oaks in N. America. The layout, photographs and desecriptions are all excellent.

best short guide to North American oaks.......2000-08-24

This book is a ton of facts for both the amateur as well as the professional botanist or horticulturalist, and at the same time it is an enjoyable read for the casual reader looking for some information or help with oak id. It is the only book that I have seen that actually helps the reader better understand and thereby learn to id oaks, by letting the reader know what the Latin name really means. Sure solves a lot of mysteries, like why the Quercus velutina is the black oak, not the quercus nigra.

Average customer rating:

A truly endearing gift book, thoughtful, reverential.

Heartwood: Meditations on Southern Oaks
William Guion , and Jelaluddin Rumi
Manufacturer: Bulfinch
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0821225316

Customer Reviews:

A truly endearing gift book, thoughtful, reverential........1999-01-01

by Frederick and Mary Ann Brussat -- from the web site.

This truly beautiful gift book contains duotone photographs by William Guion of Southern live oaks. He has been reverencing them in his native Louisiana for more than 15 years. In the introduction, Guion refers to the spiritual significance of oaks to Greeks, Celts, and Native Americans. He appreciates them a wise elders and profound spiritual teachers. Guion's evocative photographs reveal how the trees seem to draw out and convey the spirit of a place whether standing in state parks, plantations, or gardens. There are oak alleys, oaks caught in the diffuse haze of early morning, oaks with branches intertwining in the shadows, solitary oaks poised like sentries in the middle of fields. The light as it plays on the branches and illuminates the areas around the oaks is another theme worth your attention. Alongside these oaks are 30 brief poems by the Sufi mystical poet Rumi, with translations by poet Coleman Barks in collaboration with Persian scholar John Moyne. Guion, who has been a teacher of Transcendental Meditation for almost 20 years, has perfectly matched these poems and the varied trees with themes such as longing, love, mystery, gratitude, eternity sacredness, and silence. Our favorite, a leaning oak reflected in a pond-it appears on the hardcover jacket of our book "Spiritua Literacy"--is complemented by a Rumi quatrain including the lines "Turn as the earth and the moon turn, / circling what they love." This enchanting book draws a bead on the deep connection between nature and the soul's delight. It would make a wonderful gift for any lover of trees or poetry. Guion lives in Utah where he is working on future book projects utilizing his photographs and writing.

Average customer rating:

A Wonderful Read!

Button, Bucket, Sky (Picture Books)
Briggs Martin , and Jacqueline Briggs Martin
Manufacturer: Carolrhoda Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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You Read to Me, I'll Read to You: Very Short Stories to Read Together

ASIN: 157505244X

Customer Reviews:

A Wonderful Read!.......2007-05-12

I read this book to my library students to cooincide with Earth Day. It really was a wonderful read. After reading the story, we acted the story out-I found a script for the students to use. My students always enjoy acting out stories!

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