“Evergreen” by Matthew Cordell Gets Four Starred Reviews!

★ Booklist - 01/01/2023

Evergreen is a fearful little squirrel. But when her mother, who makes delicious, healing soup, asks her to take some to Granny Oak, she can’t refuse. Walking through Buckthorn Forest, she helps a rabbit who is trapped between two rocks. Afterwards, a red-tailed hawk snatches Evergreen, carries her aloft, and asks her to pull out the thorns that are hurting him. Though suspicious, she complies and earns his gratitude. Next, she rescues a little toad who has hopped to a stepping stone midway across a stream but is too frightened to hop back. Finally, she sees an enormous bear crash to the ground. Granny Oak! After reviving her with Mama’s magical soup, Evergreen returns home with new confidence, ready for another adventure. The writing is concise and direct, and the episodic narrative is divided into six parts: one to introduce the characters and set up the drama, one for each of the four major challenges that Evergreen meets during her journey, and one to conclude her adventures. Drawn, shaded, and occasionally crosshatched with black Micron pen and tinted with watercolors in yellow, tan, brown, rose, and pale blue hues, the beautifully composed illustrations give this picture book a handcrafted look that suits the timeless story. — Carolyn Phelan

 ★ School Library Journal

K-Gr 2–There is something familiar about Cordell’s book, and not just the style of art—sketchy line work, with warm earth tones washed over them—but the modern play with story and design broken up into digestible, short chapters, each reading like an Aesop-vignette where Evergreen, the squirrel we follow through Buckthorn Forrest, faces a scary obstacle she must overcome. With each chapter, Evergreen grows more confident, so that by the end, she is better able to predict and prepare for all possibilities. The interior pages start out looking like a chapter book, but the text is broken with exciting spreads, graphic novel–style ­layouts, and playfully illustrated text. These design decisions make this book feel new and familiar—a classic readers will be ­talking about in the future. VERDICT Cordell never disappoints and never fails to surprise readers with his evergreen ability to take a story and make it feel fresh and timeless in one go.–Jessica Schriver 

★ Publisher's Weekly

This action-packed forest marathon from Cordell (Cornbread and Poppy), which reads like a “Little Red Riding Hood” remix, stars oft-terrified squirrel Evergreen, sent by her mother through Buckthorn Fores

t to take Granny Oak a neat acorn’s worth of healing soup. A wide-eyed rodent in a worn red shawl (a nod, perhaps, to her folktale forebearer), Evergreen generally hides “behind the closed curtains of a bedroom window,” dreading so many things that “it would take far too long to list them all.” Though a forest-wide trip intimidates her, her mother reassures her that she can do it, and she sets out. Across the book’s six parts, Evergreen frees a rabbit named Briar, is carried off by a hawk called Ember, and hinders would-be soup thieves of all kinds—and that’s just for starters. Cordell’s dense, scribbly ink hatching and watercolor washes are fittingly deployed throughout, portraying animalian feathers and fur alongside soft, earthen growing things. Vignettes framed in twisted driftwood lend notes of old-fashioned charm that temper loud noises (“GRRROOOAAARRR!”) and unexpected encounters. The contrast between Evergreen’s own self-doubt and the way she shines under pressure is conveyed with humor and skill in this adventuresome allegory about confronting the world outside as well as one’s own very real fears. Ages 2–5. Agent: Rosemary Stimola, Stimola Literary. (Feb.)

★ Kirkus

Soup is always the correct solution.

Evergreen, a young squirrel who lives high in a tree in Buckthorn Forest, is afraid of most things, but top of the list is thunderstorms. When her mother, who makes magical soup, asks her to take an acorn full of soup to Granny Oak, who is ill with the flu, Evergreen is afraid that she won’t be brave enough to do it. But she knows she must—and that she must be careful not to spill a drop, as “Granny Oak will need every bit of it to get better.” Setting off, the scared squirrel encounters a menagerie of adventures and forest creatures in her journey. It’s a wild, imaginative read and one that twists and turns like a forest path, with unexpected surprises along the way. Cordell is a masterful storyteller, and readers will love following Evergreen’s journey as she grows into a more confident squirrel. The artwork is the real star of the show, however; there’s a hint of Sendak in the characters’ humorous expressions and in the timeless pen-and-watercolor backgrounds that cry out to be examined in detail. Educators and caregivers will love reading this story aloud in installments, and readers will adore seeing what Evergreen encounters in her travels. A hint of future stories will tantalize readers, who will close the book eager for a new volume to devour.

A spellbinding tale that will never brown or fade with time. (Early chapter book. 6-8