Monday, June 17, 2019

Around the World in 80 Trees

Around the World in 80 Trees / Jonathan Drori, illustrations Lucille Clerc, 240 p.

A book that exemplifies the superiority of bound print over other media, at least in certain circumstances.  Organized geographically, the book begins in England with the London plane tree and continues east, finishing with Canada's sugar maple.  Stops in between include lesser-known (to me) species such as Indonesia's Upas and the Blue Quandong of Australia, which produces  a marble-sized cobalt blue fruit. 

Each tree is accompanied by an essay which explores the tree's relationship to humans and other life forms.  One would think that 80 consecutive tree essays would become monotonous, but Drori is a gifted writer as well as a font of information.  Accompanying drawings are gorgeous, detailed and subtly colored, and printed on paper well worthy of the project.  I paged through this with a child's delight, truly.  Great pleasure in a compact package, reasonably priced. 

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