Forests (In Focus)

Perplexing editorial choices bedevil this addition to the In Focus series featuring 10 forest-themed sections, each illustrated by a different artist. Skipping from specific environments (“The Black Forest”) to basic information (“The Anatomy of Trees”), with tangential subjects (“Forest Mythology”) thrown in, creates subject-area whiplash, which is amplified by fragmentary text studded with distracting asides (“Farmer Robert Winterhalder built the first surface ski lift in 1908”). Forest-dwelling Native people are distressingly presented: indigenous people of the Amazon are given fewer words than a discussion of two European naturalists who traveled the area, while the spread dedicated to “Peoples of the Forest” hops around the globe to collect factoids about indigenous cultures, giving each roughly the same amount of text as that dedicated to Bigfoot and fairies on another spread. The closing pages, centered on forest preservation, do offer positive calls to action (reduce, reuse, recycle; plant a tree). Ages 8–12. ([em]Mar.) [/em]