For Anya, the shiny brown chestnuts known as conkers are the stuff of dreams. When her grandmother tells her that the clusters of white blossoms on the trees in the park will become horse chestnuts in the autumn, Anya resolves to gather them all. She returns to the park with her grandmother in the ensuing months, her anticipation growing much faster than the spiky nuts on the branches. But when she finally manages to cart a load of chestnuts home, it occurs to her that they might be more than just toys. Having watched the cycle of the trees over three seasons, Anya decides to multiply her gains by planting these seeds in her grandmother’s garden.

Early investment strategies aside, the pedagogical focus of this picture book is the life cycle of horse chestnut trees. One of the greatest strengths of the book is the “Did You Know?” section at the back, with facts, glossary, and nicely illustrated diagrams. This is the fifth picture book by Ontario-based author and illustrator Halina Below, and here, as in her previous work, she has used finely detailed watercolour paintings. The pictures, like the story, are gentle and well rendered, but the backgrounds are more appealing than the figures of the child and her grandmother. One problem is that the facial expressions look static, but worse is their sentimentality. For instance, the cover illustration plays up Anya’s large green eyes and chestnut hair as she leans wistfully against a tree trunk. A pretty child might be a selling point for some adults but isn’t captivating to other children, who will likely prefer the squirrels and other scenes of movement and activity in this book.