Growing A Legacy

When you are part of a family with parents like my parents who loved their flower and vegetable gardens, you find yourself gardening with the same optimism  and hope.  Even today with both my parents gone, I find myself continuing to overturn the soil, plant the tiniest of seeds, and know with proper care a flower or vegetable will push through that dirt and make something beautiful.  Regardless of knowing the science behind seeds and the plants they produce, it is still a miracle to me. 

Together as a family we took avocado pits and grew avocado trees.  We planted fruit trees, nut trees, shade trees, and a blue spruce twenty-six years ago in memory of my father.  For every year my sweet Xena has been gone, I have planted a tree to commemorate the joy she gave me.  The thing is when you plant something, it is an act of faith.

Author Anne Wynter and artist Daniel Miyares have collaborated to bring readers a book, Nell Plants A Tree (Balzer + Bray, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers, January 31, 2023), that shows this optimism, hope, and faith.  A single act causes something to happen.  Some might say what happens is expected and ordinary.  There is nothing ordinary about the sight of a majestic tree or the generations of family bound to that tree, each weathering the storms of life.

Before a grip on a branch

and a fall to the ground

and a scrape

and a leap

and a reach for the top, . . .

A child, a little girl, named Nell finds a seed.  Another child, a little girl, does reach near the top.  She and two other children limb by limb scale that same tree to watch in wonder as three tiny birds crack open their shells.  Before those children embrace that tree, Nell takes that seed, now sprouted, and covers it with dirt.

The children use the tree as a goal for racing, racing to see who is the fastest runner.  Sometimes, it is the perfect spot to avoid irritating noise and too-much discomforts.  The trunk of the tree supplies strength and support.

In the right season, the ground beneath this tree is dotted with pecans.  Their shells are opened.  They are used to make the best kind of pie.  Around the tree is a space for discovering natural treasures . . . and something pushing between a partially opened pecan shell.

Before these children, grandchildren, race, find solace, pick pecans for pie, and find riches, Nell tends to the sprout giving it water and sun.  When it is large enough, she digs a hole and plants it.  The tree grows.  Nell grows and so does her family under the branches of a seed that sprouted, was given tender care, and planted.

It is hard to read the words written by Anne Wynter in silence to yourself.  You can hardly finish the first five phrases without knowing these words need to be read aloud.  She masterfully combines two stories in one.  She moves flawlessly from the present day activities of Nell's grandchildren to Nell's finding of the seed and her subsequent role in it becoming a magnificent pecan tree.  Anne Wynter begins each portion of the children's moments with the word before.  She then lyrically describes what they do, followed by a simple statement about Nell.  Here is another partial portion.

Before sacks of pecans

and a crack and a crunch

and a roll and a press

and a mix and a pour

The first thought in my mind when I opened the dust jacket was oh my goodness!  What Daniel Miyares has done is combine several perspectives in this single image.  On the front, we see the girl reading her book in the nook between the trunk and branch of the tree.  The family home is in the distance.  Notice the hues of the leaves in this tree and of the trees around the home.  The lighting is exquisite.  

Rather than have the entire tree cross the spine of a dusty, steely blue, leafy branches bridge the front and back of the jacket.  On the back, underneath the boughs of the tree, a grandmother and her grandchildren pluck pecans from the grass and place them in a basket.  We view this as if looking at them from the branches over their heads.  The colors of the leaves in this scene are darker in browns and greens not touched by the light.

One of the hues used in the dust jacket, a golden cream, covers the book case.  A darker golden orange is used for the spine.  The left side of the book case is bare.  On the front is a small stenciled silhouette in one dark color.  It is of the girl seated next to the tree, reading her book.  Between the center branches, now moved to create a space, sits the house.

For the opening and closing endpapers, Daniel Miyares has fashioned a patchwork of fabric and colors found in his interior illustrations.  On one of the pieces on the right side of the opening endpapers is the sprouted pecan.  On the right side of the closing endpapers, that pecan is now a fully-grown patchwork tree, leafy and grand.  To the left of the tree are the author and illustrator notes.

Rendered using

pen and ink, gouache, and collage

these images by Daniel Miyares are both timely and timeless.  His title, verso and dedication pages show a panoramic view of a grassy area, the pecan tree, and the home in the background on the right.  The children run, arms outstretched, from the left toward the tree.

He alternates between double-page illustrations, single-page pictures surrounded by wide, loose frames, full-page visuals, edge to edge, and two groups of smaller vignettes on a single page.  His viewpoints vary, but ultimately invite us into the settings.  Everything calls to the child in us, the sheer joy of being near a grand tree, climbing that tree, resting against that tree, finding wonders in it and around it.  Daniel Miyares's depictions of Nell are tender and honest.  And Daniel Miyares brings us full circle with his final piece of artwork.

One of my many favorite illustrations is a double-page picture.  The sky is drenched in orange and golden hues seen at sunset.  These colors touch the tops of trees along the bottom of both pages.  On the far left side, branches crossing the gutter to the right and bleeding off the top, is the pecan tree.  Standing on one of the higher boughs on the right is the girl clad in a white t-shirt and overalls. Her left hand clasps a branch.  Her back is to us as she stares into the distance.

Now, more than ever, the value of a tree is essential to life on our planet.  In Nell Plants A Tree written by Anne Wynter with artwork by Daniel Miyares, we clearly understand this, but we also see how one seed planted generations ago can grow into something around which an entire family is built.  It is as if the strength of that tree lends itself to the families.  They nurture each other.  This is a title you certainly will want on your personal and professional bookshelves.

To learn more about Anne Wynter and Daniel Miyares, please visit their websites by following the link attached to their names.  Anne Wynter has accounts on Facebook and Instagram.  Daniel Miyares has accounts on Facebook,  Instagram and Twitter. Daniel and Anne are interviewed at Maria Marshall's Making Nature Fun.  At Max's Boat hosted by Ratha Tep, Anne and Daniel are interviewed.  There is a bounty of images to be enjoyed.