Teaching the Trees

Reviews / Votes

Walk along with Joan Maloof through a forest, and you will see, hear, and smell stories better than anything on the Discovery Channel or, for that matter, in the Brothers Grimm. These are parables to live with, offered by a storyteller-biologist who is one part Thoreau on fruits, one part Alcock on insects, and one part Rilke on poetry. -- Gary Paul Nabhan * author of <i>Cross-Pollinations: The Marriage of Science and Poetry</i> * In Teaching the Trees, Joan Maloof combines science, heart, and spirit as a wonderful reminder of how important, special, and sacred trees are to us and to our world. Use this book as your call to action to conserve, protect, and restore our earth's trees and forests. -- Julia Butterfly Hill The heartwood of this book harbors a kind of genius in fine and even grain: the power to look at the familiar and reveal for us its magic as for the very first time. From deep and soulful roots this book rises into a work of love and wonder, crowned by a high, overarching intelligence that changes forever our wide view of the surrounding world. -- Carl Safina * author of <i>Song for the Blue Ocean</i> and <i>Eye of the Albatross</i> * Maloof reveals little known facts about the trees we all thought we knew so well and many of the other organisms with which they interact. She is a skilled and engaging storyteller. This small book is suitable for anyone who enjoys reading about nature and is fascinated by the many unseen interactions between organisms. -- <i>Southeastern Naturalist</i> A fascinating study of what is going on in and under our very noses when walking through nature's blessed wonder-the natural forest. . . . Her book combines astute awareness with keen intellect. If this is the teaching style her students are accustomed to, they are to be envied. -- <i>Rapid River</i> An impassioned take on the sacred nature of trees, with natural-history essays touching on their critical role in all our lives. -- <i>Body + Soul</i> Trees, the dominant life form of most undisturbed terrestrial ecosystems, get a fitting tribute in this engaging collection of eco-meditations. . . . The resulting mix of scientific lore and acute personal observation makes for a beguiling walk in the woods. -- <i>Publishers Weekly</i> A lovely collection of essays as spur and solace . . . A biologist by training, the author makes good use of poetry and history to demonstrate the connections between the trees and the rest of the planet's inhabitants. A gem. -- <i>Booklist</i>