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Summary
Summary
With art supplies in tow, a young boy explores the urban forest near his home, then interprets what he sees with his art. The boy is a keen observer who uses poetic, rhythmic language to describe the diversity he finds through all four seasons. His forest is both "fluffy" and "prickly," "dense" and "sparse," "crispy" and "soft." It's also "scattered and soggy, and spotted and foggy." His forest is made up of many colors --- but he decides that "mostly it's green." Each aspect of the forest inspires the boy to create a different kind of art: charcoal rubbing, rock art, photography, sponge painting, snow sculpture, cut-paper collage. To this artist, there's always something new to discover, and to capture!In this delightful picture book, Darren Lebeuf, an award-winning photographer, encourages small children to look closer at and appreciate the nature that surrounds them. And by providing such a broad range of ideas for artistic expression, it's sure to awaken the nature artist in every child. Bright, deeply textured illustrations by Ashley Barron bring the forest and the boy's artworks to vivid life. This story provides an excellent depiction of nature-based education in an outdoor classroom. The specificity of the concrete and abstract adjectives used in the text works as a perfect complement to primary science lessons on investigating, comparing and identifying the physical characteristics of plants and animals. This book also makes for an enjoyable, lyrical read-aloud.
Author Notes
Darren Lebeuf is an award-winning photographer with a background in design and visual communication. My Forest Is Green is his first picture book. He lives in Vancouver, British Columbia.
Ashley Barron is an award-winning illustrator who specializes in cut-paper collage. Her creations can be found in children's books, newspapers, set designs and shop windows. She lives in Toronto, Ontario.
Reviews (4)
School Library Journal Review
PreS-Gr 1-A young artist presents a close-up analysis of an urban forest in this colorful examination of the outdoors through various art media. He explores and depicts elements on the ground that are tall and short, textures that are fluffy and prickly, and the varying colors seen from an aerial outlook on a high-rise terrace. The images glow through cut-paper collage shapes, leaf prints, and watercolor, acrylic paint, and crayon hues that imitate nature from seed pods to bark. The boy investigates ants on the ground, wide and narrow trees, heavy and light rocks, dense and "sparse" bushes. Rain, snow, "scattered and soggy, and spotty and foggy." Vibrant color and an endless list of adjectives shape the description of both large vistas and small scenes from the forest floor. "My forest sings and dances" with visual suggestions and a lyrical text for the young artist uncovering nature through multiple art media. VERDICT A lovely celebration of all things green, this is a suggested general purchase; especially suited for budding artists and young nature lovers.-Mary Elam, Learning Media Services, Plano ISD, TX © Copyright 2019. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Publisher's Weekly Review
Colorful cut-paper collages adorned with watercolor, acrylic, and pencil crayon illustrate the activities a child uses to piece together an understanding of the city-adjacent forest outside his high-rise apartment building. Starting with simple opposites ("My forest is tall. My forest is short"), the text ripens into a cascade of playful, well-chosen adjectives thoughtfully paired with images of the child observing the forest throughout the year, then working with different art materials to capture facets of his experience. Crayon rubbings show bark's roughness, sponged paint represents the softness of moss, and found rocks are transformed into turtles, frogs, and fish-"scattered and soggy,/ and spotted and foggy." Each page offers gentle encouragement to get outside, observe carefully, and create joyfully. A jubilant assemblage of the child's creative work near the end shows that "my forest is so many things." Ages 3-7. (Apr.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
Kirkus Review
A child narrator, created from cut paper and paints, introduces readers to the beauty of life's "forest," both figuratively and literally.From the balcony of a high-rise apartment, the child can see the top of the urban forest nearby. However, there's also an indoor forest, one made of the child's own artwork depicting all the wondrous things found in nature. A double-page spread that reads "My forest is crispyand soft" depicts the child scuffing through fall leaves and gazing at a mossy spot in borderless horizontal panels on verso, while on recto those leaves are taped into collage images and replicated with sponge paints in corresponding panels. The child's forest has many facets: It is "tall," it is "short"; it is "fluffyprickly [and] rough." Every page introduces many characteristics that define the child's world, and each is paired with both encounters with flora and fauna and creative use of varying art media to capture their essence. Colorful multimedia spreads convey the joy of discovery and model the different ways art can be used to express colors, textures, and feelings. Simple text offering a plethora of adjectives, some surprising ("dangling yellow, tiptoe gray, peekaboo purple"), and illustrations that are simultaneously complex and accessible make this a book to enjoy on many levels. The child has beige skin and straight, black hair, as do mom and a baby sibling.Nature and art intertwine in this multifaceted homage to the beauty and creativity that surrounds and resides within each of us. (Picture book. 3-7) Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Booklist Review
The scenes of this charming picture book effortlessly alternate between a young boy's actual forest (a park right across the street from his high-rise apartment, replete with trees, bushes, a pond, and lots of wildlife) and his virtual forest: his home art studio, a cozy alcove where he creates and displays his drawings, collages, photos, and bark rubbings. He muses about his discoveries as he collects specimens and looks for real-life inspiration: My forest is crispy, he notes as he crunches on dry leaves, and soft, as he examines a mossy tree. Readers watch as he uses his imagination and incorporates the various characteristics into his art pieces. As he thinks about both forests, he concludes that they're both mostly green: Twisty green, shiny green, jagged green, and wavy green. The cut-paper collage illustrations are equally effective in showing outdoor and indoor scenes and present the boy's artistic efforts in styles that kids will relate to. This is a simple, satisfying tale that's just in time for spring.--Kathleen McBroom Copyright 2019 Booklist
