cover image The Universe Is a Tree

The Universe Is a Tree

Laura Filippucci. Creative Editions, $18.99 (32p) ISBN 978-1-56846-304-9

This thoughtful celebration of trees explores their mythological, biological, and spiritual significance, devoting each page to an idea and a tree species that supports it (and sharing a quotation for and information about each). Yew trees serve as “gates to the beyond” in Norse stories of Yggdrasil, a tree with roots that “[extend] to different realms.” Trees can also be “givers”—the baobab “provides food, medicine, water, and precious shade”—while the olive tree has long represented wisdom and peace. In Filippucci’s ornate watercolor-and-ink art, the trees are cavernous, imposing, and divine (the face of the Buddha peers from the gnarled trunk of the banyan tree), emphasizing how they have nurtured myths, legends, and the well-being of humans and animals throughout time. Ages 12–up. (Sept.)