A Forest Begins Anew

As the author says in the back mat­ter in answer to the ques­tion Are Fires Good for the Envi­ron­ment?, “Well … yes and no. Tree rings and soil sam­ples show that fire has always been a nat­ur­al part of for­est life.”

Those of us who know peo­ple who live with­in a for­est or near­by, whose lives have been abrupt­ly changed by a for­est fire, know about the dis­be­lief and grief that accom­pa­ny a rag­ing fire. Chil­dren in par­tic­u­lar, those who haven’t expe­ri­enced a fire, have many ques­tions. What hap­pened? How did it hap­pen? What can we do? What hap­pens next?

Author Louise Aamodt uses poet­ic text to take us from light­ning strik­ing a tree, through the burn, on to the for­est and crit­ters and peo­ple recov­er­ing. Poet­ry feels like the right approach … it’s not too heavy or dark and yet it still rec­og­nizes the big changes.

There’s a good deal of reas­sur­ance in Aamodt’s word choic­es. Yes, a for­est fire is trau­mat­ic and affects many liv­ing beings, includ­ing trees, plants, insects, small and large ani­mals, fish, birds, and peo­ple. But there is also renew­al after a fire. A chance to begin again.

I would select A For­est Begins Anew for a read-aloud because it will engen­der dis­cus­sion in a class­room or fam­i­ly den. It also pro­vides many of the answers. The text flows well, essen­tial for read­ing out loud. It also has many ono­matopoeia words, pro­vid­ing an oppor­tu­ni­ty for drama.

Illus­tra­tor Elly MacK­ay shares that her illus­tra­tions “were cre­at­ed by pho­tograph­ing three dimen­sion­al scenes made with ink, pen­cil and paper. The ani­mals are win­some and tucked through­out the pages, always relat­ing to the text. The lay­er­ing of images is intrigu­ing. The cut­ting line is often vis­i­ble, remind­ing us that these are illus­tra­tions and not actu­al views of the for­est. The fire scenes are vibrant and, for me, breath-stopping.