By the end he has found himself on a park bench and, in a rush, leaves the book behind where a girl will find it and have adventures of her own.Ībout four pages into this book I had to flip back to the cover. As we learn, so too does the boy, and soon enough he finds himself in his own forest, scaling the trees, escaping fires, and meeting the creatures that rely on the plants. We learn how old the trees are, the kinds of ecosystems they prefer, their resistance to forest fires, how tall they can grow, etc. As he reads facts about redwood trees, we read the same thing.

He picks it up, possibly drawn to the cover, which shows himself standing in a redwood forest looking up. You have kids that think non-fiction is dull as dishwater? Meet the cure.Ī boy finds a book sitting on a seat in a subway platform. And on top of that we’ll also give you a fun story, great visuals, and small furry creature evident on almost every single page. In this debut non-fiction picture book from Roaring Brook, Chin takes a page from the Magic School Bus school of writing for kids. But hand them a poor work of non-fiction and what’s their reaction? “Boooooring!” So superior informational books for kids not only have to be interesting and well written but they also have to fight against the intended audience’s learned prejudices. Hand a kid a terrible picture book and they’re going to at least give it a glance. Still, I’d argue that a poor work of fiction is going to appeal to a child more immediately than a poor work of non-fiction. Is it easier to write an excellent work of fiction than an excellent work of non-fiction? It’s sort of a trick question. The nephew gave this 5 stars and the niece gave this 4 stars. You simply have to see them to comprehend them, I think. This got the kids imaginations going too and they really can’t believe how big these trees are. They could believe that animals live in the canopy and never touch the ground. I thought the artwork was fun and the story really hooked the imagination. I would love to be able to go there on a weekly basis. The energy is so huge you can almost ride on it. There is nothing on Earth like those grooves. One in Northern CA and the other outside San Fran. I have been to two different Redwood forests. It gives all kinds of tips and facts about the forest.

This book is about a boy reading a book in NYC about the Redwood forest.

Redwoods by jason chin