GIANTS IN THE LAND

After the many paeans to rainforests, a different kind of tribute to trees—to the towering specimens that grew only in the primeval New England forests and were felled to make masts for British warships—``forty inches wide at the base, one hundred and twenty feet tall, and absolutely straight'' (a resource the British lacked once the Revolution began). Roads were built especially to carry the carefully cut trees, which were hauled to the sea by as many as 20 teams of oxen—a complex engineering feat over rough, hilly terrain. McCurdy's wood engravings are the perfect complement to the lucid, gracefully cadenced description of this historically significant harvest; generously spread across the appropriately tall pages, they capture the sturdy frontiersmen and their mighty task in meticulous detail. The medium is poetically felicitous; the result is an outstandingly handsome and interesting book. (Nonfiction/Picture book. 7+)