Big Tree

Big Tree by Brian Selznick, 2023

Recommended for grades 4 and Up

Adventure, Historical Fiction

Two sycamore seeds are on their own after their mother tree is knocked down. Set in the cretaceous period, this story follow the seeds, Louise and Mervin, on their journey to find someplace safe to put down roots. Mervin thinks they’re supposed to find their way towards the Beautiful Mountain, but Louise senses that some external force is warning her of danger. Like Selznick’s other books, including 2008 Caldecott award winner The Invention of Hugo Cabret, this book alternates text passages with sequences of full-page pencil illustrations. Despite being over 500 pages long, it’s a quick read. It includes quite a few scientific tidbits, not only in terms of the life cycle of trees and the mention of dinosaurs and other prehistoric critters, but also highlights the communication between fungi and forest plants by describing mushrooms as “ambassadors” and has an underwater scene that describes the nearly-microscopic Foraminifera as Scientists because they have served as a source of data about their environment. Recommended for middle grade readers (as well as teens and maybe even adults) with an interest in botany, natural history, or environmentalism.