The Gentle Genius of Trees

by Philip Bunting

Overview

Let trees teach you everything from how to branch out to how to stay rooted in this delightful blend of nonfiction and inspirational humor by author-illustrator Philip Bunting!

What could we clever humans ever learn from trees? Find out when you take a stroll through the woods and learn a few life lessons from our foliaged friends in this truly special book filled with graphic illustrations.

With humor and heart, readers will encounter a small forest of facts. They'll explore the brilliance of trees in creating one interconnected wood-wide web that enables their community to collaborate with each other, share resources, warn of threats, and survive and thrive together.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780593567814
Publisher:	Random House Children's Books
Publication date:	01/31/2023
Pages:	32
Product dimensions:	9.75(w) x 10.25(h) x 0.36(d)
Lexile:	890L (what's this?)
Age Range:	4 - 8 Years

About the Author

Philip Bunting is an author and illustrator whose work deliberately encourages playful interaction between the reader and child, allowing his books to create a platform for genuine intergenerational engagement and fun. Philip’s books have been translated into multiple languages and published in over thirty countries around the world. Since his first book was published in 2017, Philip has received multiple accolades, including Honours from the Children’s Book Council of Australia and making the list for the Kate Greenaway Medal in 2018. He lives with his young family on Queensland’s Sunshine Coast.

Editorial Reviews

★ 03/27/2023

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. (Jan.)

Publishers Weekly

★ "Sometimes wonderfully silly, always enlightening, this book branches out to become profoundly moving." —Kirkus Reviews, starred review

★ "This amiable wander into the biology of trees...wraps up with a sweet social and emotional lesson, advising readers to take on the best tree qualities." —The Bulletin, starred review

★ "A terrific tribute to the 'wood-wide web.'" —Booklist, starred review

★ "Wry humor and googly eyes animate this playful, smart overview of the scientific processes that help trees to thrive." —Publishers Weekly, starred review

“A playful yet appreciative overview of tree life.” —School Library Journal

From the Publisher

02/01/2023

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

School Library Journal

★ 2022-10-12
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)

Kirkus Reviews