What if a letter could connect an ancient tree to the tiny seed it just let go?
In Dear Acorn (Love, Oak), Newbery Honor–winning poet Joyce Sidman and Caldecott Honor–winning illustrator Melissa Sweet craft a beautiful collection of sixteen imaginative letter-style poems. Through this lyrical correspondence, objects in the natural world—from an oak tree writing to its acorn to a bubble whispering to the sky—share reflections on identity and connection. This 40-page poetry picture book is a Junior Library Guild Gold Standard Selection and has earned starred reviews from Kirkus, Publishers Weekly, and The Horn Book. Sweet’s vibrant, mixed-media illustrations perfectly echo the text, making the ecosystem’s complex interdependencies visible and inviting for readers of all ages.
This book is an excellent choice for any educator looking to bring UN SDG 15: Life on Land into the classroom. By celebrating the ecological connections between living things, the poems foster a deep sense of respect for nature’s interdependence and model environmental stewardship. For a classroom connection, teachers might use these poems as a mentor text for a “Student Poetry Exchange Project”. After studying seed-to-tree life cycles in science, students could write and illustrate their own letter poems from the perspective of different ecosystem elements. This process encourages students to be “Caring” and “Reflective”—key IB Learner Profile traits—as they imagine life from a perspective different than their own. Ultimately, this book provides a gentle but effective entry point for student-led advocacy, showing that even the smallest parts of our world are worth protecting.
