February 1, 2023
Gr 2-4-A surprising amount of factual information about the biology of trees is served up with humor and rounded out with life lessons readers can take from the leafy giants that share the planet. Photosynthesis and carbon dioxide/oxygen exchange are economically explained. Children will be intrigued to learn of the role of an underground "wood-wide web" of mycelium that allows trees to communicate and share nutrients with one another. Bunting recommends emulating trees by supporting one another, appreciating diversity, and "push[ing] yourself toward the things that give you the most energy." Sprinkled throughout are quips, puns, and riddles that will entice kids to read every word, although some vocabulary will be challenging for the age group, such as foliaged, subterranean, and mutually beneficial. Pictures created with collage, gouache, and digital painting are arranged with plenty of clean space around them. Diagrams and labeled sequences add visual interest. VERDICT A playful yet appreciative overview of tree life that can be enjoyed by a slightly younger audience than Can You Hear the Trees Talking? by Peter Wohlleben.-Jan Aldrich Solow
Copyright 2023 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.
Starred review from March 27, 2023
Wry humor and googly eyes animate this playful, smart overview of the scientific processes that help trees to thrive. Bunting urges gratitude for all the ways “we hairy humans,” portrayed with varying skin tones, benefit from woody species, and encourages amazement for the ingenious techniques trees have adapted to grow, communicate, and support one another. Infographic-like gouache and collaged illustrations portray a wide-eyed wildlife cast described with punny language: a mycellium-twined root system shares nutrients and information via a “wood-wide web of connections” (“Can I borrow a cup of glucose?” one tree asks another), and a parent tree shades a seedling to ensure its development occurs slowly enough to bolster longevity. With concluding spreads, Bunting further proposes life lessons that humans can learn from the “gentle genius of trees” (“Grow slow, grow strong”), circling back toward a subtly conservationist message of interconnection. Ages 4–8.
Starred review from November 1, 2022
Trees and humans are alike in many ways. The roughly 3.4 trillion trees on Earth are more than just big plants there to provide humans with wood. They're highly evolved, community-driven networkers that grow and adapt in ways that people can't see. In Bunting's capable hands, trees are also funny and loving; the book combines science and dad jokes to convey the many lessons we can learn from our woodsy friends. Clever illustrations help make the point that, like us, trees are living, social things, such as a human lung drawn to look like an upside-down tree or a tree's root system drawn to resemble the folds of a human brain and called a "subterranean cerebrum." Bunting details the ways that trees use their complex root system ("the wood-wide web") to help each other (for instance, when a tree is injured, other trees send nutrients) and how they change the way they grow (e.g., making sure branches closer to the sun grow more) to ensure survival. The narrative then shifts from silly jokes ("How do you make an oak tree laugh? Tell it acorn-y joke") to rather insightful lessons from nature. Like trees, Bunting suggests, people should look out for others, stay centered when things get tough, and most of all, "Grow slow, grow strong." People depicted are racially diverse. (This book was reviewed digitally.) Sometimes wonderfully silly, always enlightening, this book branches out to become profoundly moving. (Informational picture book. 4-10)
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Starred review from December 1, 2022
Grades 1-3 *Starred Review* In a terrific tribute to the "wood-wide web," the author of How Did I Get Here? (2019) offers a mini disquisition rich in both philosophy and scientific fact. He begins with the latter, explaining how photosynthesis creates glucose for nourishment and releases oxygen, how trees grow toward sunlight and adapt to changing conditions, and even how they communicate and help one another out through root systems (their "subterranean cerebrum") connected by fungal networks. He then invites readers to see from their example the value of belonging to a community, of helping others, and of branching out to find "things that give you the most energy." Occasional wordplay ("How do you make an oak tree laugh?" "Tell it acorn-y joke") and googly eyes attached to almost every trunk or close-up leaf in the simply drawn illustrations keep both the informational load and the overall tone light. Having made the point that "what is good for the forest is good for the tree. And what is good for the tree is good for you and me," he closes with one final bit of woodland wisdom: "Grow slow, grow strong." Definitely a more salutary message than the "life" (or, more accurately, "death") lesson of The Giving Tree.
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