On his bench in the 14th Street Station of the New York City Subway, a dark-haired young boy spots a book called Redwoods. (Intriguingly, the cover of the book he finds appears to be the same as the actual book, Redwoods, with the selfsame boy on the cover. Odd.) He picks it up and starts to read. As the boy heads for the just-arrived F train, he reads, "The coast redwoods are among the oldest trees in the world." Sitting on the bench in the subway car, he reads, "Their ancestors lived about 165 million years ago, during the Jurassic period." Behind him, out the window, you will note the three long-necked dinosaurs, one of which seems to be peering in the car. As he becomes literally immersed in the book, everything appears to come to life around him. Reading that there are trees alive today that have been around since the Roman Empire, he doesn't seem to notice the two men, one in a toga and one in full Roman armor, flanking his seat. He emerges from the subway and looks up in amazement: there are massive redwoods everywhere instead of city streets. He's sure not in Manhattan anymore.

This imaginative nonfiction picture book juxtaposes a fascinating narrative of facts about redwoods with large, attractive full-bleed illustrations of the boy's you-are-there findings, in a whole other take on getting lost in a book. Book in hand, he learns all about these remarkable trees, even scaling one with a climber's rope, to observe firsthand the plants and animals in the canopy. Redwood Fact for the Day: In the book, we learn that the record holder for the tallest redwood, in the class called Titans, was discovered in 2006. "Hyperion" stands 379.1 feet tall. That's a lotta tree. Take your children outside so they can measure that length on the ground, down the sidewalk, perhaps. In the Author's Note, Chin writes, "I hope that this book inspires you [to] visit California and experience the wonder and majesty of the redwood forest." I'm betting children will do just that.

TEACHING TIP: Have your students research and write about another one of nature's wonders like Mt. Everest, the Grand Canyon, or the Sahara Desert, illustrating and incorporating themselves into a page of facts.

THEMES: BOOKS AND READING. GIANT SEQUOIAS. IMAGINATION. REDWOODS. TREES.