Leave the Trees, Please

Zephaniah’s assonant lines urge arboreal protection as Castrillón’s sinuous renderings memorably tell a parallel story of eco-appreciation and protest. Riffing on the title, opening lines establish a refrain, while a brown-skinned figure breathes deeply beneath the boughs of a magnificent thick-trunked deciduous specimen: “Leave the trees, please./ Because the trees/ work with the breeze/ to put all living things at ease.” First-person lines reveal a speaker’s intimate connection with a tree that is “one thousand/ and five hundred years old.” Vignettes crafted with swirling emerald and auburn lines see that individual befriending another child, graduating alongside them, and then gazing at a newborn who matures over subsequent pages. When a white X appears on the beloved tree’s trunk, text grows stern (“Trees make oxygen./ Let me say that again./ Trees make oxygen”), and the family successfully protests for a rallying takeaway in support of conservation. Background figures are portrayed with varied skin tones. An endnote discusses photosynthesis and means of protest. Ages 4–8. (Feb.)