THE LEAF DETECTIVE: A Picture Book Review

 Congratulations to Rosi Hollenbeck, my California blogger counterpart, who won Buzzing With Questions from last week's blog.

This week I'm excited to be a part of a blog tour for a marvelous new picture book, The Leaf Detective by Heather Lang.  

Lang's passion for the life and work of Margaret Lowman is clearly communicated through the beautiful language in her free verse poetry. Outstanding illustrations by Jana Christy enhance the book's impact on young readers in this terrific picture book biography. 

"We are part of our ecosystem, not outside it." Margaret 'Canopy Meg' Lowman. 

REVIEW

This is the first picture book biography I've read that opens with information about the character as an adult and then flashes back to her childhood. Here is the opening:

Meg loved how leaves

  burst into the world 

      and unfurled. 

She admired their different shapes, 

colors, and textures. 

After twenty years of thinking about them, 

   reading about them, 

      studying them, 

Meg wanted to understand them, 

to discover their stories. 

How did they survive? 

   How long did they live? 

      Why did they die?

The author then takes a step back into Meg's childhood in Elmira, New York. A shy child, Meg found "comfort and friendship and quiet excitement in plants."

"Meg wrapped herself in nature,
like a soft blanket."

As a young woman, she "fed her passion with science" in college--despite the fact that one professor didn't allow her to take his class because she was a woman. 

Meg "stuck like sap" to her passion and went to graduate school in Sydney, Australia to study the rainforests.

Using seat-belt straps,

Meg sewed a harness.

From a metal rod,

she welded a slingshot.

This was no easy feat. It took many tries but,

At last, splashed with flowers and sunlight--

   the canopy!

The treetop swayed

   back and forth.

Flies whizzed.

Lizards lingered.

A black weevil sucked leaf juices.

Sweat bees landed on her arm

for a lick of salt.

And the jungle's music danced all around her.

The rain forest had never been studied from within. Meg was thrilled to explore this new frontier--even people said women didn't climb trees! 

Leaf facts like these add more information to each page:

"By the 1970's, deforestation, the clearing of forests by humans, had become a serious problem in Australia and around the world. Scientists guess that more than half of our forests have already been destroyed."

She explored the stinging tree.

It defended itself--

its pincushion leaves tore at her skin,

and chemical hairs injected poisons with a fiery sting!

Meg tried to climb at night,

but dangling from a rope, studying leaves,

is difficult

and dangerous 

in a dark forest

    with deadly snakes

         and spiders

               and ravenous biting ants. 

She had to find a better way, but what?

Then one night,

at one of her research sites,

she and a friend had a brilliant idea--

a trail through the treetops

made with ladders instead of ropes.

Meg helped invent the world's first canopy walkway!

Meg's work had only begun. She traveled to Cameroon, Africa, where she joined a team of scientists who used a hot air balloon to place a raft in the treetops!

At the top of the canopy, Meg realized that she wanted to work on conserving rainforests. She returned to Cameroon and helped the villagers learn how to use the rainforest's gifts, like ferns and orchids, rather than cutting them down. In Western Samoa, she helped set up canopy tourism. In Ethiopia, she persuaded people to protect their trees by building stone walls. 

Meg used her voice

to inspire people

to save their rainforests

to save themselves

  because to Meg, a tree is not just a tree.

It is a shelter for animals and people,

a recycler and provider of watner,

a creator of food and oxygen,

an inventor of medicine,

a soldier against climate change.

It is essential for life on earth.

BACK OF THE BOOK NOTES

Heather Lang included an extensive author's note which includes her  experience meeting Meg and going on a climb with her in Peru!

Heather and Meg in 2017

There is a beautiful two-page spread of the rain forest that shows the plants, trees, animals, and insects at each level. The resource page includes a bibliography, videos, and source notes.

CURRICULUM RESOURCE

This book will make a superb addition to any K- 5th grade home or school library. It will inspire students to conserve natural resources and teach them how you can write about science in a lyrical manner! 

Click here to find the curriculum guide. 

No giveaway this week. I'm saving this one for my grandchildren.

Watch this video, and you'll want to order your own copy!