THE VERY OLDEST PEAR TREE: A Picture Book Review, Mini-Author Interview, and Giveaway

 I'm delighted to introduce you to a new author friend of mine, Nancy I. Sanders. Nancy has published scads of books and her blog is full of information for writers, teachers, and readers. Take your time to look around her site and you'll be impressed as I am with her experience and generosity! If you want to get to know more about Nancy's passion for picture books, check out this interview. 

In today's post I'm highlighting one of her picture books, The Very Oldest Pear Tree (Albert Whitman & Co., 2020). This informational book for readers from 5-8 years old, tells the inspirational story of how the Endicott pear tree grew up with our nation. Click here for links to classroom resources.

REVIEW

The year is 1630. The main character is a pear tree sapling that is shipped to the governor of Salem, John Endecott.  He has missed the fruit trees in England and is determined to start an orchard.

Governor Endecott picked the little pear tree to grow right in front of his house, hoping that it would live a long time. "The tree was small yet strong. Though young, its roots reached deep."

Twelve years later a fire blew through the orchard, destroying hundreds of trees--but the Endecott pear was spared. Generations passed. The family changed the spelling of their last name, the Governor's house crumbled, but the Endicott pear tree--with its new name, stood.  

By the time our second president of the United States, John Adams, ate one of its pears, the tree had become a legend. It inspired Massachusetts poets like Henry Wadsworth Longfellow and  Lucy Larcom. 

The tree survived a hurricane in 1938 and vandalism in 1964. Tree experts were unable to graft new branches. But, the Endicott pear tree tree sent out roots and "almost miraculously, a hundred tiny branches sprouted along the trunks. It survived!"

In 1997 a cutting was used to grow a new Endicott pear tree. Clones were made, seeds stored in a storage bank, and now Endicott pear trees have been planted across the nation--including this one, that Nancy planted and is now six feet tall!

Today, about four hundred years old, the Endicott pear tree is the oldest living tree cultivated in America. When John Endecott first planned it in front of his house, he expected the pear tree to outlive him by more than a hundred years. But no one imagined its story could still be told today.

The Endicott pear tree is a survivor. It's older than America itself. And it's still standing strong.

MINI-AUTHOR INTERVIEW

CAROL: How did you get interested in this topic? 

NANCY: I wanted to write a picture book every elementary teacher would want to use in the classroom. I figured that would be a highly commercial topic. So I knew children study Pilgrims in Kindergarten/first grade. So I started reading about Pilgrims to see if I could find any new topics about Pilgrims that hadn't been written about before. I discovered they planted an orchard of apple trees!

I started researching their orchard of apple trees because I love trees...and each time I searched for that on the Internet, links would come up for a pear tree that the Puritans had planted...that was still alive and growing strong! I started clicking on those links, learned about the Endicott Pear Tree, and was hooked. I fell in love with it right from the start!

CAROL: What type of research did you do?

NANCY: First I read everything I could about it. There's actually a lot online from the historical society that still helps care for it.

Then I contacted Bill Endicott, the president of the family's descendants who originally planted the tree. He gave me a lot of information.

Then I took a trip to Boston and Salem and Danvers to actually visit the tree and take lots of photographs. That was so exciting to actually touch the tree and sit near it!

CAROL: What was your path to publication? 

NANCY: This was one of the rare times in my career that I wrote the entire book before I queried a publisher. I sent the manuscript to my agent Cyle Young who submitted it. And Albert Whitman picked it up!

CAROL: Any thoughts on the illustration style?

NANCY: I was so excited to learn that Yas Imamura was picked up to illustrate this book. I was already familiar with her name and her style because she had illustrated some very nice nonfiction picture books at that time. I love her style which has a nice Americana and historic feel.

GIVEAWAY

Leave me a comment with your email address if you are interested in winning a copy of this book; U.S. addresses only. Giveaway ends April 2. This will make a great homeschool or classroom resource--or just a wonderful book for your bookshelf!

Congratulations to Natalie Aguire who won Picturing a Nation from last week's post.

WINGED WONDERS: A Picture Book Review and Giveaway

 Congratulations to Tricia Clark who won Fly, Firefly! from Monday's blog. She's an "old" friend, but a new follower to my blog. 

Author Meeg Pincus is a gifted author who I featured on my blog a year ago. I am new to Yas Imamura's work but as you'll see in the color palette she used in the illustrations, she is also very talented. This is another fine picture book published by Sleeping Bear Press.

REVIEW

In this way, Meg Pincus begins the story of how two Canadian scientists, many volunteers, a young married couple, and a village in Mexico worked together to solve the monarch migration mystery.

In 1976, the world finally learned the answer...with a groundbreaking discovery.

It began with Fred and Norah Urquhart, two scientists who spent 30 years studying the monarch mystery. In his lab, Fred tagged the butterfly's wings with--of all things--small price tags. Norah placed ads in newspapers throughout North and Central America asking for volunteers to tag butterfly wings. She kept track of every "tidbit of information" that was returned to her.

Thousands of science teachers, backyard gardeners, and other curious souls answered Norah's ads and became citizen scientists. 

Ken Brugger and his Mexican wife, Catalina, rode through Mexico for two years trying to track the butterflies' "twisting trail." 

Villagers in central Mexico directed the couple to look for the monarchs in their oyamel tree groves. 

Catalina kept 40 notebooks of monarch data and "crunched through early morning snow, high in the Sierra Madre mountains" and was rewarded by being the first to spot them.

But who provided the proof that Fred Urquhart needed to announce the discovery of The Great Monarch Migration?

CURRICULUM RESOURCE 

Winged Wonders ends with a plea to help save the diminishing monarch population. The last spread encourages readers to be a part of preserving landing spots and airstreams on which the monarchs depend. The back matter includes more about the migration discovery as well as ways in which everyone can help monarchs. I'm going to see about planting milkweed in my garden! Here are some links to educational activities. 

PUBLICATION JOURNEY

Since I'm always interested in an author's journey, I found Meeg's interview on Kathy Temean's blog to be inspiring. If you've ever been discouraged by what appears to be a dead-end in writing a picture book biography (as I have!) here's another way to look at a topic. 

GIVEAWAY

Leave me a comment (with your email address, if you are new to my blog) by December 12 at 6 PM. Share this post on social media for an additional chance to win the book!