 Foreword by Julia Butterfly Hill
Author of Legacy of Luna
My memories from the time of being a child are filled with playing in forests and climbing trees. During times when I was frustrated, sad, or angry, I remember always searching out trees because they would make me feel better.
Now that I am older and have spent over two years living in the branches of an ancient redwood, I see how trees give us all so many special gifts. Not only do they share with us places to rest when our hearts, bodies, and spirits are tired and worn, but they also provide so many of our actual needs for survival. From clean air to breathe and water to drink, to acting as nature’s air conditioners, trees are great teachers of unconditional giving.
Trees and our Earth take such good care of us and all they ask in return is that we do the same for them. This beautiful home we all live on wants to give to us forever. But if we don’t take good care of it and if we continue cutting down all the trees, eventually it will have nothing left to give us.
Our Earth needs everyone’s help – young and old, boys and girls, all colors, shapes, sizes and abilities. We are all important, and as Dr. Seuss tells us in The Lorax,
Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot,
Nothing is going to get better. It’s not.
Things can get better, and they will, as each of us decides to become a caretaker of the trees, the Earth, and each other. We are the ones.
Forward by Pete Seeger
Musician, Songwriter
Where Have All the Flowers Gone?
If I Had a Hammer and Turn, Turn, Turn
"Sixty-nine years ago I went to a school where I learned to use an ax and how to cull-out the young trees, as one thins out a row of carrots. I used these skills seventeen years later when my wife and I built a small house in which we raised our three kids. Later on, we could afford to hire carpenters to build a porch for us. They used lumber from a Douglas fir tree.
So now, as I read this beautiful book, I realize I’m a part of the problem, even as I would like to be part of the solution. I know this book – printed on recycled paper – is part of the solution. Looking back at the lessons of my youth, I recommend to the kids: Don’t let your studies interfere with your education."
Back cover quote by Dr. Jane Goodall
Author of A Reason For Hope
"The Tree should be on every child’s bookshelf.
The illustrations are hauntingly beautiful.
The message is powerful – we must take
peaceful action to save what we love." |
