The Oak Tree Award-winning author by Julia Donaldson (author) and Victoria Sandøy (illustrator)

Watch a thousand years unfold in the life of one magnificent tree!
A thousand years ago, a tiny acorn fell to the ground. As the years pass, it grows . . . and GROWS into an enormous oak tree! As the centuries sweep by, children play games around the tree. Families dance about it. A fleeing king even hides inside its hollow trunk!
The tree gives food and shelter to a host of animals, from squirrels and badgers to birds and beetles.
After a thousand years, the ancient tree finally falls in a storm – but a new acorn sprouts, and the cycle of life begins all over again.

The tree’s magical life story is brought to life in Julia Donaldson’s rich, dramatic rhyme.

Victoria Sandøy’s gorgeous, atmospheric illustrations perfectly capture the changing seasons, and the people and wildlife that pass by

Children will love spotting all the creatures in the pictures, and seeing the games children play around the tree

This is a book that encourages us all to look more closely at nature, and to appreciate the wonder of our ancient trees.

The final pages of the book contain extra fascinating facts about oak trees and the animals that depend on them.

Praise for The Christmas Pine, also by Julia Donaldson and Victoria Sandøy:
“Magical . . . as well as paying tribute to tradition, the gentle rhythmic verse and stunning pictures illuminate the two other things close to Julia’s heart: the power of children and song”Good Housekeeping
Julia Donaldson is the author of many of the best-loved children’s books ever written.
She has been awarded a CBE for services to literature, and is the most celebrated children’s writer in Britain today.
Many of Julia Donaldson’s beloved picture books have been made into award-winning animated films which are regularly shown on the BBC at Christmas.

Product Details

Catalogue number

262 in Setanta SCB September 2025

Format

Hardback

ISBN

9780702324345

Publisher

Alison Green Books

Date published

September 28th, 2023

Lexile measure

870L

Other details

32 pages

Condition

New

Author/Illustrator

Julia Donaldson

Julia Donaldson is author of many of today’s best-loved picture books including The Gruffalo and Stick Man. Best known for her collaborations with Axel Scheffler, each of these vivid rhyming stories is a triumph of imagination. She was also the Children’s Laureate 2011-2013.

More about Julia: "I grew up in a tall Victorian London house with my parents, grandmother, aunt, uncle, younger sister Mary and cat Geoffrey (who was really a prince in disguise. Mary and I would argue about which of us would marry him).

Mary and I were always creating imaginary characters and mimicking real ones, and I used to write shows and choreograph ballets for us.

I studied Drama and French at Bristol University, where I met Malcolm, a guitar-playing medic to whom I’m now married.

Before Malcolm and I had our three sons we used to go busking together and I would write special songs for each country; the best one was in Italian about pasta.

The busking led to a career in singing and songwriting, mainly for children’s television.

One of my television songs, A Squash and a Squeeze, was made into a book in 1993, with illustrations by the wonderful Axel Scheffler. It was great to hold the book in my hand without it vanishing in the air the way the songs did. This prompted me to unearth some plays I’d written for a school reading group, and since then I’ve had 20 plays published.

My real breakthrough was The Gruffalo, again illustrated by Axel. We work separately – he’s in London and I’m in Glasgow – but he sends me letters with lovely funny pictures on the envelopes.

My novel The Giants and the Joneses is going to be made into a film by the same team who made the Harry Potter movies, and I have written three books of stories about the anarchic Princess Mirror-Belle who appears from the mirror and disrupts the life of an otherwise ordinary eight-year-old.

When I’m not writing I am often performing, at book festivals and in theatres. I really enjoy getting the children in the audience to help me act out the stories and sing the songs."