Science Comics: Trees: Kings of the Forest by Andy Hirsch
Series: Science Comics
Published by First Second on August 21st 2018
ISBN: 1250143101
Pages: 128
Goodreads

Another winner in the Science Comics series. The series and book are aimed at upper elementary and middle grade readers, but anyone can get a lot out of reading these books. In Hirsch’s deft hands, an expressive acorn is not sure that it wants to become a tree, but aided by a leaf, a frog, a beetle, a woodpecker, a squirrel, and a mushroom, it sees how amazing it is to be one of these majestic plants and how honored it should be to join an ecosystem that provides so much for others. Through this journey of self-discovery, the reader learns so much about trees from their formation to their growth to their pollination and reproduction to their place in the world and finally, and most fascinating, to their way of communicating with one another. There is a lot of scientific vocabulary in this one, but there is a comprehensive glossary in the back and Hirsch does a nice job of explaining in simpler terms many of the complicated scientific processes at work in one tree. The acorn is a fantastic host and through it, Hirsch manages to inject humor and a message of responsibility that it and WE AS HUMANS have to nurture and preserve/protect trees on our planet. This book could be used in an Earth Science class or in a unit on plants or plant/animal adaptations. Add to any collection that already has some of these Science Comics titles and if you don’t have any, start with this one and then add as many as you can.

Reviewed by Jill O’Connor, Merrill Memorial Library, Yarmouth