What’s better than one new book by Maria Gianferrari? TWO!! This special post features two gorgeous new books that you’ll definitely want to add to your collection. At the end of the post, don’t miss the details about how to enter the giveaway. You could win a copy of BOTH books!
Explore an oak tree, from its leafy crown to its roots underground, and learn all the amazing ways it supports the animals, plants, and habitat where it lives in this surprising and enlightening nonfiction picture book companion to the award-winning Fungi Grow.
An oak tree is so much more than meets the eye. From tiny fungi to mighty mammals, this amazing tree contains a whole world.
For insects and birds, the oak’s leaves, branches, and bark are a home. For bears and squirrels, the thousands of acorns the oak produces are a nutritious superfood. Owls, deer, foxes, and many more creatures are drawn to the rich and healthy environment an oak creates. Because of a single oak tree, its many neighbors flourish.
The author and illustrator bios are at the end of the post. Keep reading to discover the second featured book and fall in love with Puffins!
Follow a young puffling’s growth from hatching to adulthood and learn about the bustling and precarious world of Atlantic Puffin City in this imaginative nonfiction picture book.
On the edge of the sea,
There is a nesting island as loud as a city,
Where two puffins mate, burrow, and lay their egg.
They splash into the ocean
And dodge nearby predators,
Searching everywhere to find food for their hungry puffling.
Follow one adorable puffling as she eats, grows, and learns how to survive on her busy, bustling island in this thrilling and action-packed nonfiction tale.
Maria Gianferrari is a picture book reader/writer, animal-lover, and bird nerd. She writes books that honor our bonds with creatures both domestic and wild, and that celebrate urban ecosystems and the natural world around us.
Maria’s newest releases are Just One Oak and Puffins!, both published in April 2026. Other recent titles include Rain and the Reading Horse, To Dogs, with Love, Fungi Grow (a Boston Globe Horn Book Honoree), Thank a Farmer, You and the Bowerbird as well as the companion books, Being a Cat & Being a Dog. Her book, Be A Tree!, won a Massachusetts Book Award Honor and has been translated into 16 languages.She grew up in Keene, NH, and lives with her family in Worcester, MA, where coyotes, bobcats and bears traverse her backyard.
Diana Sudyka is a Chicago based illustrator. Early in her career she created screen-printed posters for musicians including Andrew Bird, St. Vincent, and The Black Keys. She moved into the publishing world by illustrating several volumes of the best-selling series The Mysterious Benedict Society by Trenton Lee Stewart.
Working mainly in gouache, watercolor, and ink, subject matter and aesthetic choices for her paintings are inspired by a passion for nature and science, as well as various folk-art traditions. Diana’s author-illustrator debut, Little Land, published in 2023. Her children’s illustration book work includes Dear Treefrog, by Joyce Sidman, Angela’s Glacier, by Jordan Scott, How to Find a Bird, by Jennifer Ward, as well as Fungi Grow and Just One Oak by Maria Gianferrari, among many others. Diana’s Instagram feed features her most current work, but a disproportionate number of pictures of lichens and moss as well. When not working in her studio, she gets outdoors as much as possible with her family. You can learn more at dianasudyka.com.
Maris Wicks is a writer and illustrator whose work has taken her all over the world, from the warm waters of the Caribbean to the frozen ice of Antarctica. Most recently, she got to hang out with all the incredible seabirds on Eastern Egg Rock, and she is not exaggerating about the amount of poop. Find out more at mariswicks.com
Giveaway Details: Enter for a chance to win a copy of BOTH books by commenting on this blog post and sharing the post on social media. Mention where you shared it in your comment below. A random winner will be chosen on April 22nd (Earth Day!). Good luck! (for USA residents only, please.)
Jennifer Mary G 
Congratulations Maria! You are inspiring young environmentalists book after book after book!
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Thanks so much, Cathy <3!!
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And thank you, Jennifer for the double PB spotlight! You’re the best!!
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Congratulations on these beautiful books. I’m a huge fan of Maria’s books and can’t wait to read and review these too. I shard this post on tumblr.
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