I AM NOT BORING

An eye opener for readers who think that a log “doesn’t do anything but sit in a forest doing nothing.”

Stoutly rejecting the dismissive comments of an unseen narrator, a decomposing log indignantly points out how it feeds lichens and fungi as well as a veritable army of soil-dwelling creepy-crawlies, shelters a family of wild creatures, and even nurtures fallen seeds as they sprout and grow overhead to full size. In the sweetly anthropomorphic cartoon illustrations, a curious bear’s shove exposes the bugs beneath, skunks take refuge in the hollow trunk through the winter, and over multiple seasons a tall evergreen grows around the proud-looking log and provides a living home for birds and squirrels. “I can’t wait until I’m a log,” gushes the younger tree. “You’re amazing!” The jaunty banter between the narrator and the log will elicit chuckles while offering a potentially eye-opening revelation: Even seemingly static environments are often teeming with life. Viewers can track the action for themselves in the illustrations, which are set, Podesta implies at the end, in the Hoh Rain Forest in Olympic National Park. And, at the author’s urging, they can learn, both from her afterword and from their own explorations of nature, more about the many roles “nurse logs” play in forest habitats.

Animated and informative.