MUSHROOMS KNOW

An introduction to the fun world of fungi.

“Mushrooms always wear their thinking caps,” George begins preciously before going on to explain how they “know” how to grow underground, spread spores through the air, celebrate their many shapes and colors, and, as “tree-helpers” and recyclers, play active roles in nearly every ecosystem, even urban ones. Though the opening isn’t the only place she lets giddiness get the best of her—she also mentions twice in consecutive sentences that mushrooms can produce “deadly toxins”—her tally of fungal features and functions breezily covers the basics, and her concluding observation that “we are just beginning to understand all that mushrooms know and do” is certainly apt. The cheery faces that Gillingham draws on nearly every one of the dozens of labeled and otherwise accurately drawn shrooms bursting up on their own or in bunches against saturated monochrome backgrounds reflect the general tone, as well as the anthropomorphism. A bulleted list of further facts (including a cogent if tardy warning about eating or touching any found specimens) is appended; a tan-skinned young child pops into view occasionally to provide some notion of relative scale.

A bright and informative, if anthropomorphic, primer.