It’s a sad fact of growing up that in general, the older you get, the less illustrations your books have. But it doesn’t have to be that way! We could all have pretty pictures in our books. Trees: An Illustrated Celebration by Kelsey Oseid is the perfect example of this. This is a pretty approachable overview of trees and tree-like plants, illustrated with Oseid’s gouache paintings.
There’s not an age rating on this book, but it doesn’t feel like it was written specifically for kids. The font is a little small and it uses technical words. That said, there’s nothing in here that would be objectionable for confident young readers, and an adult could definitely help a kid read it. I’d say it’s an all-ages book, since there’s enough illustrations for even little kids to enjoy flipping through it, but it does seem like it was published for adults, as I did not find it in the kid’s section of the bookstore.
Trees is the ideal sort of book if you’re looking to read more non-fiction, but feel a bit intimidated. It breaks different concepts down into one or two page chunks, with illustrations on every page. You can sit down and spend just 5 minutes per reading session learning a little bit at a time.
If this book sparks a desire to learn even more about trees, or to be able to identify specific species in your area, Oseid provides some book recommendations in the back. Because the book is only 150 pages long, it’s more of an overview that will help you be able to identify broad categories of trees and characteristics of specific trees. It’s a stepping stone to a greater appreciation of trees, and to having a baseline language for describing different kinds of leaves, branches, and such.
My only complaint about this book is pretty minor. The prose at times felt a little lacking. I wanted a little more excitement about trees, to go with the beautiful images. The writing isn’t bad, it just could be even better.
Gifting season is just a couple months away (as the constant adverts in my inbox and the decorations on display in Costco are desperate for me to know), and this would make a nice little treat for anyone you know who enjoys nature.
CWs and TWs: Honestly I don’t think there are any.
Source and Format: I bought a hardback copy of this book at Edmonds Bookshop.
Reading Challenge Prompts
Physical TBR: I can’t figure out if I bought this book in 2023, when it came out, or 2024. I think it was part of 2023’s Seattle Independent Bookstore Day crawl. Either way, I’ve had it since at least last summer when I scanned it into LibraryThing as part of the process of packing and moving all our books. So it counts for this challenge! I donated to The Xerces Society in honor of the fact that every year around this time they remind people to “Leave the Leaves” for overwintering pollinators. Trees and bugs: two of my favorite parts of our ecosystem! See the full post on my Physical TBR Challenge for a list of all of the books and donations so far this year.
Reading Challenge Progress
Nook & Cranny (Card 1): 18 of 25, 3 bingos.
Nook & Cranny (Card 2): 22 of 25, 6 bingos.
Book Riot: 17 of 24.
Physical TBR: 10 of 12.
World of Whimm: 21 of 24, 6 bingos.
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