Trees, Leaves & Bark

This is a great take-along field guide for young ones. I purchased this for my son, who is 3 and he loves it. I wanted to have it for our hikes in North Georgia and hoped he would grow into it. He actually seemed interested in it very early on. He would even want me to read it to him some nights before bed. He's getting good at recognizing leaves and cones and trees. This book isn't meant for such young readers but is somewhat simple and has great pictures of leaves, bark, cones and trees that will spark their interest early. I think he'll like this field guide for years to come.

Just received this book yesterday (I also got the bird one). It looks very good. The pictures are very clear, and the text, though short and simple, is also clear. Unfortunately, there are only sixteen trees described, but that is only to be expected in a short introductory book, I suppose, though I would have liked to see the poplar included. I would like to see how the poplar compares to the birch and the aspen, because they seem to be similar in some aspects. So this book is already inspiring me to search farther for information. (I am not saying I should have got a better book, I'm saying that this little book has inspired me a lot already, though I only got it yesterday.) It also has a good balance between deciduous and evergreens, which is good, because we (I) tend not to know the different distinguishing features of evergreens as well as those of the deciduous trees. My complaint? "About half a dozen different birch trees grow in the northern United States from coast to coast." "Junipers grow in the northeastern states and also from Texas into the southwestern states and north into the Rocky Mountains." (etc) Can you guess? Of course it's the perception that the USA exists in a vacuum, floating in some kind of outer space all by itself. Birch trees don't suddenly stop at the American border, in fact they are probably more widespread in Canada then the US, and junipers surely don't start at the Texan border either. Why couldn't the author tell us where these trees are located in NORTH AMERICA? It would only require a change of a few words -- "on the east coast from Newfoundland to Massechusettes", or whatever. She should do this, not just for the sake of Canadians who might buy the book, but for the sake of the American kids who buy it too.

My husband and I learned a lot of things we didn't know in this book - like not removing tree bark because it never grows back. I'm hoping to use some of the project ideas as well as using the book for "scavenger hunts" when my son is older.

We live in the country and my two boys love taking this book with their dad and heading outdoors to start learning and identifying. Great learning tool!

This book is so interesting. There is so much information inside this little book it is just great. Easily readable for kids and tells them everything they could want to know about trees, from the very top, to the very bottom. Makes a walk through the woods so much fun, being able to point out all the different trees and seeds you now know from reading this book. We love it!