Leafy Landmarks: Travels with Trees

by Michelle Schaub (Author) Anne Lambelet (Illustrator)

Leafy Landmarks: Travels with Trees
Reading Level: 4th − 5th Grade

Road trips can be a lot of fun, especially when there are intriguing places to visit and new things to learn.

Through a variety of poetic forms, readers are taken on an armchair cross-country journey across the continental United States to visit 14 historic tree sites, some famous and others less well-known. From the Emancipation Oak in Hampton, Virginia, to the Methuselah tree in Shulman Grove, California, readers will discover trees that have traveled to the moon, witnessed the founding of our country, and inspired hope during troubled times. Fascinating facts covering geography, history, and nature will encourage everyone, young and old, to take a closer look at our arboreal friends.

An author's note provides tips on how to be a tree champion and how to plan your own "leafy" road trip.

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Hardcover
$18.99

School Library Journal

Gr 3-7--In this engaging and creative introduction to poetry, Schaub weaves geography, botany, and history throughout the narrative of a family's road trip to historical trees in the United States. Tree leaves flood the endpapers with poetry types and descriptions highlighted on the family's journey. Lambelet's digital art carefully layers the leaves, authentically providing texture and warmth, and the selection of fonts to identify tree species and landmarks suits each spread. "Hit the Road," a quatrain, introduces the leafy adventure with a fantastic map of all the stops and provides opportunities for cross-curricular discovery. Each tree stop includes a poem with its listed form, the location and species of the tree, and a paragraph of information about why the tree is significant. California's General Sherman, Nebraska's Arbor Day Oak, Oklahoma City's Survivor Tree, and the cherry trees of Washington, D.C., are some of the stops. Petrified Forest in Arizona is a study of contrasts and beauty, evoking the past and present through art and prose. Literary devices and forms are varied and the art provides further depth. "The Emancipation Tree" is the only piece that lacks consistency in word choice and framing. Its nonet poem, "Shady Haven," discusses that people were "Slaves no more./ Hopeful./ Free." In the informational text for this tree, it uses "enslaved African Americans" and "slaves." It is an unfortunate blemish on an otherwise impressive book. The family of four is interracial; the father is a man of color, and the mother is light-skinned. VERDICT Recommended for poetry collections, although it is best suited for guided reading.--Rachel Zuffa

Copyright 2024 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.
Classification
Non-fiction
ISBN-13
9781534112872
Lexile Measure
950
Guided Reading Level
-
Publisher
Sleeping Bear Press
Publication date
March 15, 2024
Series
-
BISAC categories
JNF038100 - Juvenile Nonfiction | People & Places | United States
JNF037040 - Juvenile Nonfiction | Science & Nature | Trees & Forests
JNF025260 - Juvenile Nonfiction | History | Symbols, Monuments, National Parks, Etc.
Library of Congress categories
United States
Trees
Historic sites
Historic trees

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