This Is the Tree by Miriam Moss, Adrienne Kennaway (Illustrator)

Children's Literature

Many of us first encountered baobab trees in Antoine St. Exupery's "The Little Prince," remember? Actually this ancient tree, "old as a volcano," hails from the African plain. This is a fine picture book, with pages almost entirely given over to the wildlife of Africa. Zebras, impala, and chameleons take shelter, eat, and climb the baobab. Just as important, this is a poem, a loving celebration of both language and tree, "the tree with the huge rounded belly, all lacy with shadows in a sea of new grass." Children will delight in both the images and the sound of the words, while they learn many interesting things about the natural world. Baobabs can live for 2,000 years, and did you know that its white and waxy flowers open at sunset, only lasting until the next morning? It's such a useful tree. Its leaves are rich in vitamin C and can be cooked like spinach. In parts of Africa, the bark fibers are made into waterproof hats. These and many more facts can be found at the end of this lyrical, educational book for young children. 2000, Kane/Miller Book Publishers, Ages 3 to 6, $14.95. Reviewer: Nancy Partridge

School Library Journal

K-Gr 3-This evocation of the African baobab tree works hard to be both poetic and informational and it succeeds at neither. The tree is straightforwardly described but also personified as having a "huge rounded belly," with rain causing "-dark-stained wrinkles/on knuckles and knees," and toes pointing to the moon. Each sentence begins with "This is the tree-," which gradually wears on readers, but the often-dramatic watercolor illustrations, lush with detail, reward viewers and extend the text. The book notes various uses animals and humans make of the shade, bark, blossoms, and fruit but readers are left to wonder why the elephant gores the trunk and what the tribespeople are doing with the bark they cut. The text doesn't explain, and the picture shows two men watching insects pour out from under the cut. More information is presented on a double-page spread at the end. Barbara Bash's beautiful, informative Tree of Life (Little, Brown, 1989; o.p.) is for slightly older readers. Like Lynne Cherry's The Great Kapok Tree (Harcourt, l990) and Brenda Guiberson's Cactus Hotel (Holt, l991), Moss's title does show how one species supports an ecosystem of interrelated animals and is an important part of the larger terrain.-Susan Hepler, Burgundy Farm Country Day School, Alexandria, VA Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.

Kirkus Reviews

The text may not be quite up to the pictures in this lyrical tribute to the baobab, but children will come away with at least a glimpse of the astonishing biological microcosm that grows on and near these monumental fixtures of the African plains. Wildlife positively teems in Kennaway's clean-lined, brightly hued close-ups: great gray elephants, a regal leopard, pink and purple lizards, clusters of exotic looking birds and insects, all dependent in one way or another on the huge, long-lived, oddly upside-down-looking tree. Despite a closing spread of facts in brief, however, much of that wildlife remains unidentified, and readers will stumble over lines like, "snake snoozes softly with one beady eye," or "delicious sweet white pulp that tastes just like wine gums!" Until Barbara Bash's Tree of Life (1989) comes back into print, if it does, consider this a useful, attractive placeholder. (Picture book/nonfiction. 6-8)Newth, Mette THE TRANSFORMATION Trans. by Faith Ingwerson Farrar, Straus & Giroux (208 pp.) Oct. 19, 2000

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