(The Tree Book for Kids and Their Grownups, illustrated and written by Gina Ingoglia)
“So long as men can breathe or eyes can see,
So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.”
– W. Shakespeare, Sonnet 18
Shall I compare you to a famous sonnet?
You’re bound to be of vastly greater use
When someone spots a tree with needles on it
And wants to know if it’s a pine or spruce.
Unlike that poem, stuck on one creation,
Your watercolors honor thirty-plus –
from roots to leaves – with lucid annotation.
(The years and years Mom spent on you! The fuss!)
But though you are a volume like no other,
And might preserve the ash and tupelo,
The dogwood, elm, and, best of all, my mother,
bean counters have decided you must go.
So long as times in publishing stay hard,
Most books are doomed unless they’re by the Bard.