HOW THE FOREST GREW

Have you ever wondered where forests come from, and how they grow?"" With that, Jaspersohn takes us back 200 years to an abandoned farm in Massa-chusetts. Seeds blow across the field, are warmed by sun and watered by rain, and in a few years the land is filled with a variety of weeds. Five years after the farm family's departure, a white pine seedling sprouts, and in 20 years the land is covered with white pines. Jaspersohn traces the succession from the pioneer pines to a middle stage that follows a lightning storm, and then to an understory of shade-loving trees that gradually take over. Concurrent with these changes, we witness the succession of animals, the buildup of humus, and the small-scale supporting activity on the forest floor. The course has been traced before and just as simply, though not in the easy-reader format. (Whether this is easy-reader vocabulary is another question.) However, Jaspersohn does it gracefully and in businesslike order, and the words are atmospherically set off by Eckart's fine-line scenes of tranquil coexistence.