"It is difficult to separate the concisely elegant text from the nearly
lyrical illustrations in this distinctive nature book...follow trees
through the seasons."--The Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books
"Trees and how they grow are the subject of this clear, handsome
introduction. ...science students as well as nature lovers will find facts
here and a quiet sense of wonder."--Booklist
"A verdant testimony to the noble plants that shade our lawns and line
our streets. Using sidebars..Dorros sets forth interesting details--e.g.,
how a baobab stores water--without interrupting the flow of the main
text...Schindler's illustrations portray it so vigorously that readers
will almost hear leaves rustling overhead. Readers will be exploring
woods, sidewalks, and yards--anyplace there are trees--with new eyes."--
Kirkus Reviews
From the close-to-the-ground perspective of a small child, trees were
giants around me. I found a duck's nest with eggs at the base of a tree,
mushrooms, toads, and colorful leaves by others. One of my earliest
memories is of a winter walk by a pond at age three or four. As I
stepped on a few acorns they went rolling and I did a flip into the icy
pond. Round-edged oak leaves floated through the emerald water, and
fortunately I floated too. The snowsuit I was wearing ballooned full of
air and I bobbed among the leaves as my father's arm quickly reached to
pluck me from the water. I looked up at the spidery branches of the
trees as I was carried, a sopping mass, back to the car to warm up.
I climbed trees, felt them sway with the breezes, tested the springiness
of the branches and hid among the leaves in spring and summer. I stuck
maple seedpods on my nose and watched other pods helicopter to the
ground, smelled the spicy sweetness of sassafras and sharp pine pitch.
In the fall, I helped pile the leaves from our yard. I didn't like
raking, but I liked playing in the piles of leaves that resulted. If
there were no trees in our yard, as with a house we moved to when I was
six, I missed them. I found seedlings of maple trees growing in places
with little promise such as the cracks in sidewalks and brought them
home to plant in the yard of our house. One of the seedlings thrived,
and when I last saw it had reached almost as high as the roof.
Though I had been interested enough to learn the names of trees, how to
tell one from another by their leaves and bark, there was much I still
did not know. Researching for this book I learned that trees grow taller
only at their tops, they don't stretch taller from below. I learned more
about the hidden inner lives of trees, and found out new things about
the connections they have with the soil, the air, and as homes for
myriad creatures. I started to understand a little better something I'd
always enjoyed--trees.
