Title: Science Comics: Trees: Kings of the Forest Author: Andy Hirsch Illustrator: Andy Hirsch Publisher: First Second : New York Copyright: 2018 Recommended Age Range: 9-13 Formats: Hardback (128 Pages), Paperback (128 Pages), and E-book (128 Pages) Available from: Amazon, Barnes&Noble, Google Play, Kobo, Abe Books, IndieBooks, and anywhere else children's books are sold Critical Score: 3/5 Storyteller Score: 1/5 |
Official Summary: Every volume of Science Comics offers a complete introduction to a particular topic―dinosaurs, coral reefs, the solar system, volcanoes, bats, flying machines, and many more. These gorgeously illustrated graphic novels offer wildly entertaining views of their subjects. Whether you're a fourth grader doing a natural science unit at school or a thirty-year-old with a secret passion for airplanes, these books are for you!
In Trees: Kings of the Forest we follow an acorn as it learns about its future as Earth's largest, longest-living plant. Starting with the seed's germination, we learn about each stage until the tree's maturation, different types of trees, and the roles trees take on in our ecosystem.
In Trees: Kings of the Forest we follow an acorn as it learns about its future as Earth's largest, longest-living plant. Starting with the seed's germination, we learn about each stage until the tree's maturation, different types of trees, and the roles trees take on in our ecosystem.
Review: Straddling an awkward middle in both its tone and format, Andy Hirsch's Trees: Kings of the Forest can generally be described as an entertaining but informative crash course on botany and dendrology, the studies of plants and trees. Yet because of its confused identity, the book as a whole tends to find itself in constant conflict with everything it tries to achieve. The graphic, cartoonish style and narrative progression, for instance, are constantly overwhelmed by the text's barrage of facts and concepts. On the other hand, though, the writing's almost textbook quality and ability to convey terms and ideas are drowned out by the work's explosive, colorful, and eye-catching illustrations. In other words, by attempting to succeed at two, different means of expression, Trees ends up struggling and failing to achieve the maximum impact both options could have provided. In spite of its internal conflicts, though, I won't deny that the work is still worthwhile in terms of both its academic and entertainment value.
As an informational text, Trees: Kings of the Forest is honestly nothing short of impressive. The sheer breadth of knowledge it attempts to impart within its 128 pages is staggering. Starting with the basics of how plants and trees grow up then out, the book covers everything from the variety of trees that can be found and all the similarities and differences various species possess to how various environmental factors and locations can impact the diversity of trees within a given region. From various forms of reproduction to the methods trees can use to spread their seeds and on beyond to how humanity impacts all of this, it would be fairly accurate to say this text covers everything a budding ecologist, ideally one that is in middle school or high school, might want to know.
Yet, despite it's almost textbook level of depth and breadth of information, Trees struggles to properly capture and explain the topics that it addresses. The characters that drive this story simply list off concepts and terms in such a rapid-fire manner that it's hard for anything to properly stick. In the story's efforts to be expedient and entertaining, there's rarely ever a pause long enough for the reader to consider how the text's images might express what is being discussed. Unlike a textbook that would explain an idea, expound on it, or offer diagrams and definitions to properly explain the information to the various learners that are expected to read the text, Hirsch simply forgoes any explanation for the sake of keeping the story going. While a glossary of the story's key terms does exist in the back of the book, there is never a footnote or narrative box that instructs the reader to refer to any particular page to learn what that bolded text might mean. To be fair to the author, though, throwing in footnotes or author commentary would be counterproductive to and functionally interrupt the book's running narrative.
Fortunately and unfortunately, though, the book's story shares very similar highs and lows. Told from the perspective of a newly fallen acorn, Tree's explores the world of trees and plants via the dialogue between the acorn and its six instructors who are more than happy to satisfy its burning curiosity. As the story goes on, the acorn learns more and more about his own potential and the things other plants and trees like him are capable of. Yet, to keep this running dialogue feeling fun and fresh, the story swaps out the acorn's instructor every 20 pages or so, allowing each instructor to focus on aspects of plant life you might expect from that animal. For example, as the acorn's first instructor, the tree frog is capable of explaining how plants grow and develop since the frog has no interest in eating the acorn. The borer beetle and squirrel, however, explain how the acorn will grow out and develop wood and nuts that both those animals eat. On the whole, though, the story isn't exactly riveting material and lacks a concrete plot. There is a loose strong of ideas that hold the "story" together but they mainly come across as contrived, comedic afterthoughts that offer the acorn an excuse to learn more. Still, in spite of that lack of a story, the informative banter between the characters generally does an effective job to keep the book going in much the same way most edutainment pieces do.
Individually, these two aspects of the story do function well and keep the book both fun and informative. As they mesh together, however, the general function of the story starts to get muddled as both formats wrestle for dominance on each page. As I have already explained, the story's narrative structure and pace are an automatic black mark against the book's informational value since it never offers a moment for the terms and concepts to be properly explained or expounded on. Similarly, the educational value of the text directly limits what this book could have done with it's story and narrative. Rather than having a cast of well-though-out and engaging character's working together to teach a lesson, we are instead given multiple personifications of a textbook narrator and a reader insert character bantering back and forth to express an incredible amount of information. Where this conflict really takes place, though, is in the way the instructive text often finds itself in opposition with the colorful, playful imagery. Swaying back and forth between pages being mostly picture or mostly text, Hirsch seems to struggle to find a happy medium between these two means of expressing the book's many lessons. With such lively and animated characters, it's hard not to have your eyes drawn to them and what they're doing rather than the word bubbles that instruct the reader. From time to time, that ideal balance does crop up as Hirsch's illustrations work to properly express the lesson and terminology in much the same way a textbook might. Just as quickly as these perfect, unified moments come, however, they are just as easily lost as the sway back and forth muddy the book's overall effectiveness once more.
Despite my gripes with the book's lack of tonal and structural cohesion, though, I cannot deny that I greatly enjoyed reading it. It was fun, informative, and, as someone who already learned these lessons back in middle school and Boy Scouts, a wonderful refresher on all things plant and tree-related. Regardless of how much I enjoyed it, though, it is fairly clear that this text is one far more limited in uses than I might normally like. As a storytelling resource, it's functionally useless considering how the dialogue of information doesn't lend itself well to storytelling. What's more, while the book can be broken into parts, via acorn losing and gaining an instructor, the book doesn't have easily divided chapters that could be put down and picked back up again at the reader's convenience. Rather, this text works best as an introductory, informational text, due to it's rapid-fire method of introducing concepts and terms. Alternatively, this text would do wonders for after school programs, study sessions, or remedial classes where children can read about and see the terms and concepts seen in their textbooks play out in this graphic novel format. At the same time, though, it should be noted that this isn't a young reader-friendly title. Considering the complexity of many of the terms for how and what makes trees grow and develop, it would be incredibly difficult for a young reader to sound out, let alone understand these intense topics. At best, this is a text meant for middle schoolers and lower-level high schoolers because the overly complex vocabulary. So, unfortunately, this is going to be one of those text I believe should be approached with some wariness, regardless of whether they are a student or an instructor. However, once some of those ecological basics are down, Trees might just be a wonderful tool to show a child just how much they still have to learn if they are interested in the subject.