This week at Growing with Science blog we feature the picture book biography The Leaf Detective: How Margaret Lowman Uncovered Secrets in the Rainforest by Heather Lang and illustrated by Jana Christy.
The Leaf Detective is as multilayered as a rainforest tree.
The trunk of the book is the biography of Margaret Lowman, an incredibly brave and determined biologist who developed new methods for studying the tops of trees, the canopy and emergent layers. Using ropes and a harness of her own design, she climbed up into the great unknown.
The branches of the story are Meg Lowman’s findings. For example, she discovered that most of the herbivores in the rainforest she studied were nocturnal, eating leaves at night and hiding during the day. To learn more, she climbed up into the trees at night.
The roots of the story comes after Meg realized that for all people didn’t know about trees, they were still destroying them at an alarming rate. She started to come up with innovative ways for people to use intact forests as a source of income and thus making it economically viable to save them.
Let’s not forget the leaves. Sprinkled throughout are leaf-shaped sidebars filled with interesting facts and additional details. So cool!
The illustrations are as green and lush and complex as a rainforest, too. The reader could get lost and spend hours in them.
The bottom line? The Leaf Detective is perfect for young readers who are budding scientists, adventurers, conservationists, interested in women’s history, the list goes on and on. Pretty much everyone will find something to explore in it. Pick up a copy and see how it resonates with you.
If you have a minute, hop over to the blog for more information and activity suggestion.
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