Redwoods

Redwoods

Written and Illustrated by: Jason Chin

Published by: Flash Point

40 Pages

 

​In this fun-filled picture book, a boy imagination takes him on a wild adventure through the redwood forest. The boy is reading a fact book about the monster trees, and some of the facts have him thinking about the giants in their beginning times. This book is filled with endless facts about these beautiful creations. As the information spills out from the pages of his book, his imagination takes him deeper and deeper into the Redwood Forest.

​The images in this book make the facts come to life, even prehistoric life. Jason Chin uses cold and vibrant colors to create these paintings. I love how Chin incorporated the different elements from the facts into the pictures. For example, having roman guards sitting with the boy on the subway train while he was reading about the tree’s old age was a sure way to get the young readers to understand how old the trees really are.  Upon leaving the subway station, the boy enters into the actual redwood forest. The comparison of the tall trees to the skyscrapers is a wonderful detail that allows the children to understand how large these trees actually are.

​I would use this book in a science lesson about the life cycle of a tree. I would use this story as an opener before explaining to the children their assignment to find a tree stump (real or a picture) and determine the number of rings to figure out the tree’s age. The facts in this book are true, however there are some aspects of the story, such as him going from place to place, is not. I would how my students determine which parts of the story to fictional, and which parts a real! Last, I would use this story to compare and contrast the redwoods forests to the large city the boy is actually in. The skyscrapers transform into the huge trees, and vise-versa. I would have the students write about all the difference and find a few comparisons as well.