WHOSE TREE IS THIS?

Singer examines a white oak tree’s central role in creating habitat for 13 species.

The prolific poet delivers short verses in the personified voices of the tree’s many denizens, including cicadas, crows, and humans. The first poem asks the titular question, and each successive entry responds, “This is my tree.” An orb weaver spider heralds the oak as “a perfect place / to spin a web, / supersized and strong, / then wait beside its perfect edge / till dinner comes along.” Accompanying each poem is a paragraph with intriguing facts about the species and its interaction with its oak host. The lichen orb weaver spider, for example, can spin an eight-foot-wide web, while chickadee parents feed their hatchlings between 6,000 and 9,000 caterpillars during the chicks’ first 16 days. The poems, short, brisk, and unsentimental, adopt a casual approach to rhyme, usually with a pair of alternate rhymes within the final three lines, with occasional internal rhymes. Caterpillar says, “I hatched in a batch / this spring, / so hungry and so keen / to crawl along the leaves / and feast on something green.” Plum supplies vibrant gouache compositions that strike the right balance between scientific verisimilitude and sprightly child appeal. Together, it all adds up to a rich, deeply immersive portrait of a keystone species—and the ecosystem it supports.

Accessible, engaging, and important—STEAM writing at its best.