The Everything Trail

by Meg Fleming, Chuck Groenink (Illustrator)

Overview

Come along on an eye-popping journey through the forest with a group of young explorers ready to discover everything nature has to offer in this lyrical, awe-inspiring picture book full of “curiosity and wonder” (Publishers Weekly, starred review).

The wind waves its hand.
The trees take a bow.
Everything’s big.
And everything’s small…

From giant redwoods to tiny saplings, steep canyons to shallow creeks, and soaring eagles to crawling critters, there are endless wonders to discover along a trail through the forest. This sweeping story of a day spent in nature will inspire young readers to soak in all the marvels, big and small, that surround them.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781665924887
Publisher:	Beach Lane Books
Publication date:	08/26/2025
Sold by:	SIMON & SCHUSTER
Format:	eBook
Pages:	32
File size:	83 MB
Note:	This product may take a few minutes to download.
Age Range:	4 - 8 Years

About the Author

Meg Fleming is the author of Sometimes Rain, I Heart You, Here Comes Ocean!, Wondering Around, and The Everything Trail. A former voice teacher, Meg draws on her love of rhythm, rhyme, and lyricism to create and imagine stories. She lives in Minneapolis with her family. Visit her at MegFleming.net.

Chuck Groenink is the illustrator of The Library Book by Tom Chapin and Michael Mark and many other picture books. Originally from the Netherlands, he now lives with his family in Valatie, New York. When not drawing pictures for books, he likes to read, bake bread, or go hiking, and he wishes he could play the banjo. Visit him online at ChuckGroenink.com.

Editorial Reviews

*Frolicking text and a soaring, horizontal design beckon readers along a high-spirited adventure where curious children explore a towering redwood forest and many of the wonders that impressive ecosystem has to offer. Delightful shifts in perspective and panoramic scenes . . . should captivate story time audiences and immerse lap listeners. The sort of read-aloud one closes with a smile; readers will long to revisit these woods.

August 2025 - Booklist STARRED REVIEW

Two children head into the redwood forest for a hike. Along the way, they collect a few more friends and together discover the marvels of fallen logs, banana slugs, ferns, and towering trees. Inviting her readers in with the almost familiar phrase—“This is the forest. / This is the steeple”—Fleming goes on to describe the plants and animals of this sensory-rich adventure in lilting rhyming text. Groenink’s cheerful, expansive digital illustrations convey both the wonder of the forest itself, with rich greens and shafts of sunlight, and the joy of the wide-eyed multiracial cast of children as they explore and play. This forest is a holy place, and children and their families should be inspired to go outside and look for themselves.

September/October 2025 Issue - Horn Book

*Twining the fantasy of an unfettered childhood adventure with the majestic reality of an ancient redwood forest, Fleming and Groenink offer an outdoors variation on a classic children’s rhyme: “This is the forest./ This is the steeple./ Giants and saplings/ and just a few people.” An expression of hope that curiosity and wonder can transform into stewardship and care.

5/19/2025 - Publishers Weekly

On their first reads, kids will likely focus on the young adventurers, but repeat readers will enjoy spying forest animals around, above, and below. Will surely whet children’s appetites to get out and walk amid nature’s steeples.

06/01/2025 - Kirkus

2025-05-03
Come along on an adventure.

“This is the forest. / This is the steeple. / Giants and saplings / and just a few people.” While the verses at time sacrifice meaning for rhyme, their familiar cadence and mention ofsteeple will perhaps prompt readers to think of the outdoors as a church of sorts, and it’s the pictures that are the true draw. The young hikers on the trail take everything in: the feel of the ferns, the bugs underfoot, a bed of sorrel to lie in under soaring redwoods, the sensation of cool water on hot feet, the rock path across a stream, seeds on the wind, the smell of bay laurel, and the view from a tree on the summit. Adult readers may cringe at the kids’ unpreparedness, some of the risks they take, and the lack of grown-up supervision, but youngsters will be struck by the wonders found along the trail, brought home by the large trim size. Groenink’s illustrations masterfully highlight the colors and shifting light of the outdoors: the filtered light of the forest, the green reflections of a mossy canyon, the dark of a tunnel, and the bright sunlight of an open summit. On their first reads, kids will likely focus on the young adventurers, but repeat readers will enjoy spying forest animals around, above, and below the racially diverse cast, which includes a child in hijab.

Will surely whet children’s appetites to get out and walk amid nature’s steeples.(Picture book. 3-8)

Kirkus Reviews