Listen to the Language of the Trees
By Tera Kelley
Illustrated by Marie Hermansson
“The forest gave what it had, so the giant tree might live”
A small seedling sprouts out of the forest floor. It came out of a seed from a cone buried a while ago by a squirrel. The seedling grows at the base of a giant tree and the next few openings introduce how it learns to communicate with the forest community through “a silky net of fungi” connecting the entangled root system: “The trees talked to each other through their roots. They spoke of danger—of drought and pests. They spoke of what one tree needed and another had to give.” The giant tree recognizes the seedling as its own and feeds it nutrients. One night the giant tree is struck with lightning and loses a limb. The missing branch creates an opening through which the seedling is exposed to direct sunlight. “For the first time, it made its own food.” The giant tree is weakened though and it is soon attacked by beetles. Whereas in the past it used to be a provider, the giant tree now sends a distress signal, asking for help. “Through the threads of fungi, from root tip to root tip, nutrients flooded. Not out from the giant tree, but toward it.” The forest gives and the giant tree survives. The book ends with 3 openings that explain the natural processes informing the story and offer a handful of activity suggestions for young readers.
Listen to the Language of the Trees is a nonfiction account of how forest ecosystems communicate and share nutrients through the mycorrhizal (fungal) networks coevolved with the trees’ root systems (see wood wide web). For climate literacy education, the book helps spark conversations about trees, forests, and forest ecosystems as living wholes, in which each species—plant and animal—has a role to play (see biodiversity). The squirrel burying a cone, for example, enables the seed to get established and sprout. The fungi partner with trees to trade carbon, nutrients, and water (see carbon cycle). The giant tree in the story, Douglas Fir, is an example of a “Mother tree”—large, older trees that take care of younger plant communities in their vicinity. Lightning strikes, wildfires or beetle infestations are among some of the threats the forests face. This book would be helpful to explain the value and interconnectedness of ecosystems: the idea that ecosystems are integral to one another and if we damage one then we damage them all. Through the “eyes” of a young seedling, the book teaches about cooperation, communication, and coexistence as key principles of nature. One potential way this could be used in an English language arts classroom would be to have students map out—through different visual means—the different parts of a specific ecosystem and how they help each other.
©2024 ClimateLit (Jacob Johnson)
Teaching Resources:
Publisher: Dawn Publications, 2022
ISBN: 978-1728232164
Pages: 35
Format: Nonfiction, Picturebooks
Science Standards: K-LS1-1
Topics: Biodiversity, Carbon Cycle, Carbon Dioxide, Ecosystems, Forests, Fungi, Interconnectedness, Mycorrhizal Fungi, Plant Communities, Trees, Wood-Wide Web