Big Tree

Caldecott Medalist Selznick opens this sweeping illustrated novel in a Cretaceous forest as two sycamore seeds, drawn as diminutive figures with shocks of delicate fuzz, search for a place to take root after a forest fire’s fallout propels them away from home. Louise, trusting and intuitive, often hears words from sources that can’t be seen (“The voice I’ve been hearing, the dreams, the Old One... It’s telling me there’s danger”). Protective, anxious Merwin brushes his sister’s insights aside (“We already know there’s danger! There’s danger everywhere!”), intent on finding a safe place to exist. Journeying through a lush, verdant world on the precipice of catastrophe, the two encounter varied outlooks via a host of beings who form Earth’s web of life: self-important King Seaweed, tiny Scientists who record the data of countless generations, a Ghost Leaf who helps other plants grow. Silvery, deeply textural drawings move elegantly between planet-scale drama, microscopic life, and Louise and Merwin’s shifting surroundings as the pace bounds inexorably onward, ending in a contemporary city where a Black child encounters a sidewalk-crack seedling. In evocative prose and peppery dialogue that sometimes get caught up in their message, the cinematic story journeys across time and space, contemplating the power of life to heal and the importance of developing “roots and wings.” Back matter details the science behind the story. Ages 7–up. (Apr.)