American author Annemarie Riley Guertin and Spanish illustrator Helena Pérez García, who first collaborated on the lovely How the Finch Got His Colors, join forces again in this charming new picture-book project. When Little Redbird, looking forward to flying south for the winter, falls and injures her wing, she realizes that she must stay where she is for the season. Not knowing what to do, she appeals to the various trees of the forest for help, only to be rejected by the silver birch, the oak and the maple. It is the evergreens - the fir, the spruce and the juniper - who offer aid, and are repaid for their kindness by the Frost Queen, who forbids her son Jack from touching their leaves. They and they alone will keep their leaves year-round...

This pourquoi tale explaining the perpetual foliage of the evergreen trees is one I have come across before, and it seems to be quite widespread. There is a version of it that comes from the folk tradition of the Cherokee, although there the story concerns an injured sparrow and a pine tree. I am aware of at least one early version in print - "Why the Evergreen Trees Keep Their Leaves in Winter" - from folktale collector Florence Holbrook's 1902 collection, The Book of Nature Myths. This may be an adaptation of the Cherokee tale, although it's difficult to say, as Holbrook doesn't seem to have discussed her sources at all. Certainly, her version is quite close to that told by Guertin in Why Evergreens Keep Their Leaves. Given that this was so, I was really quite astonished not to find any reference to source material, or even an acknowledgement that this was not an original creation, anywhere in this book. My astonishment was all the greater since Guertin did acknowledge her source for her previous picture-book, which would seem to indicate that she was aware of her obligation to do so.

I enjoyed both the story and artwork in Why Evergreens Keep Their Leaves - no surprise, given my enjoyment of the first book by this author/illustrator team - and I might have given it a four-star rating, based on that alone. Unfortunately, the omission of any acknowledgement that this isn't Guertin's original creation (even if the specific retelling is) really grates, and merited an automatic one star deduction in rating. It's really quite puzzling to me that this happened, when it didn't with How the Finch Got His Colors. If one can get past that issue, this is a book I'd recommend to readers who enjoy folk and fairy-tales, and to anyone looking for children's stories about kindness. ( )