The Charcoal Forest: How Fire Helps Animals and Plants

What a GREAT book! The nature of this book has been needed for a long time. The Charcoal Forest addresses the need for an understanding of the benefits of fires in our landscape in a wonderfully drawn, interactive way for all ages including adults. Our current mentality of stopping fires lessens the benefits the birds, bugs, and other plants obtains from the ashes of a forest fire. A book which encourages thoughtful ideas about how nature recovers from devastating events.

Beth Peluso has written an informative and engaging book for children about how forests recover from fires. It is amazing how many plants and animals actually need fire. Additionally, her illustrations are superb, depicting wildlife from fascinating angles and perspectives. I highly recommend "The Charcoal Forest."

Written by avid birder, day camp counselor, and substitute teacher Beth A. Peluso, The Charcoal Forest: How Fire Helps Animals and Plants is an educational softcover picturebook about the ecology of fire in the Rocky Mountains, and plants and animals that actually depend upon fire to survive. From the black-backed woodpecker that depends on the beetle larvae in burned tree trunks (there's a woodpecker in every beautiful color picture!) to the deer mouse that feasts on seeds exposed by fire, to plants like the huckleberry bush that need space cleared so they can receive more light, and many more, The Charcoal Forest offers an amazing glimpse into species that thrive in the wake of regular or sporadic forest fires. A final section offers more fun facts about the forest species featured, a glossary, an index, and a list of resources that young readers can look up to learn more. Highly recommended, especially for elementary school and public library children's collections.