The Boreal Forest is a perfect mid-grade biome book

In theory, I know where the Boreal Forest is. For us it’s similar to The Isle of Man; both of which are such perfectly named places that they’d only exist in some middle earth novel or on the outskirts of my geography knowledge. In this case, The Boreal Forest, A Year in the World’s Largest Land Biome is a children’s illustrated book that effortlessly blends art and entertainment into a book that nature kids will relish and casual kidlit readers will enjoy.  

As an educator, I love books like this. It’s oversized and loaded with art that will attract or inspire anyone six years or older that pick up the book. Due to its size you expect it to be tailor made for those in elementary school and to a certain degree you’re correct. Once you open The Boreal Forest you see illustrations that intentionally ask as many questions as they answer.  

For example we learn about fires in the Whitefeather Forest in northwestern Ontario. One says forest fire and careless campers or lightening strikes are the first things that come to mind. However, we find out that, a long time ago, the Phikangikum First Nation would do controlled burns of the forest. They knew that burning the old forest made way for new habitat or animals. They and their ancestors also knew that different trees burned at different rates. This resulted in some fires burning the brush and smaller trees instead of the trees. Black spruce trees burn quick and hot, which results in the resin that protects their cones breaking, which allows the seed to spread. Go mother nature…with a little help from human observation.  

The text is perfectly paired with the art, and even that is presented in different forms. Every two pages have at least two blocks of text, with some illustrations on them that are more educational in context. Those same two pages also have text that is more narrative in nature. It tells a short story about the small creeks getting bigger due to the melting snow until they overflow their banks and send birds looking for more land.  

The Boreal Forest is an illustrated book that works as an educational book for middle school readers. The text and concepts in the book are perfect for fourth graders and up. There’s even a list of resources, articles and websites at the end for readers to dig into their own research. If 10 year olds had a coffee table, filled with classy, fun books that they want to show off to their friends then The Boreal Forest would easily  be at home in that collection. This is education through fun, or art, which makes young readers curious about something that they probably haven’t heard of before.  

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