Cool Woods: A Trip around the World's Boreal Forest [Hardcover]

Jane Drake (Author), Ann Love (Author), Andrew Kiss (Illustrator)

Book Description

Age Level: 9 and up | Grade Level: 4 and up

Winner of the Skipping Stones Honor Award in the Ecology and Nature Books category


The boreal forest is the last great forest wilderness on earth. It drapes across the subarctic right around the world. It pervades our myths and folklore. It provides us with wood and water. It freshens the very air we breathe.

Jane Drake and Ann Love take the reader on an unforgettable journey around the world to view the boreal forest. They show the reader the seasons in the bush, the science and myth of wolves, the life cycle of the woods. From the Siberian Taiga, where tigers and sika deer live, to the Old World forests of Norway, from the Boreal Shield of North America to the birch forest of Northwest Russia, we are introduced to a region of incredible importance. Despite our reliance on it, we have placed the “lungs of the earth” under siege with clear-cutting, acid rain, and even radioactivity.

Cool Woods is not only informative and beautiful, but it is a call to action to anyone who cares about our planet.

Editorial Reviews

From School Library Journal

Grade 5-8-Drake and Love cover both too much and too little in this look at the boreal forest that circles the northern reaches of the globe from Canada through Russia to Scotland. They offer a patchwork of folktales, brief biographies, historical vignettes, descriptions of plants and animals, and tips for preserving the forest. Grouped into six sections, or eco-zones, the selections are a plea to conserve the remnants of the Boreal Plain. The most helpful feature is the map delineating the location and extent of the forest. The illustrations vary in quality. Full-color paintings capture the cool majesty of the woods and mountains found there. However, the unattractive black-and-white drawings look stiff and unfinished. The book may have some value as a curriculum supplement and (limited) appeal for readers living in or near the northern forest. Rebecca L. Johnson's A Walk in the Boreal Forest (Carolrhoda, 2000) and Elizabeth Kaplan's Taiga (Benchmark, 1996) are much more attractive and cohesive introductions to this biome.
Kathy Piehl, Minnesota State University, Mankato
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Review

“…totally right on…”
–The Globe and Mail

“The design and engaging writing style make this book fresh and appealing. Highly Recommended.”
–CM Magazine

“…informative and beautiful…. The text conveys a sense of wonder along with its many facts…. [L]ovingly detailed paintings…teem with life…. [T]he authors provide a glossary, an index, and an indispensable map for this intriguing trip, and many young readers will be inspired to find out more.”
–Quill & Quire

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 9 and up
  
• Hardcover: 80 pages
• Publisher: Tundra Books (September 9, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0887766080
• ISBN-13: 978-0887766084
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 0.5 x 10.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,774,646 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars We Have Our Own Tropical Forest, November 5, 2005

A Kid's Review

This review is from: Cool Woods: A Trip around the World's Boreal Forest (Hardcover)

This is a wonderful look at one of the globe's ecological treasures. Filled with facts, activities and even magic, it invites young people to learn about the globe's "Green Crown".

We hear a lot about the importance of tropical rainforests. The magical boreal forest is as interesting as any tropical forest.

And for those of us who live in the northern parts of North America, this delightful forest is at our doorstep.

"Cool Woods" is an imaginative, interesting and at times inspiring look at the boreal forest.

And, as you read this, there are threats to this forest. Like the rest of the natural world, some areas of the boreal forest are under relentless attack.

And the more young people know about this remarkable northern forest, the more they will resist it being destroyed for short-term gain.

"Cool Woods" is a cool - and important - book.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A narrowed focus on woods around the top of the globe, May 14, 2005

By 

Midwest Book Review (Oregon, WI USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Cool Woods: A Trip around the World's Boreal Forest (Hardcover)

There are plenty of children's books about forests, but Cool Woods: A Trip Around The World's Boreal Forest is something different: it offers a narrowed focus on woods around the top of the globe from North America to Siberia and Europe, and it provides a regional focus allowing kids to consider not just natural history, but history, folklore, and plants as well. The black and white and color artwork throughout by Andrew Kiss is gorgeous: Kiss spends much of his time viewing wildlife in its native habitat and his background lends to these exquisite illustrations.

2 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Horrible Environmentalist Propaganda, August 15, 2005

By 

R. Bramwell "Never expose a child to the irra... - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Cool Woods: A Trip around the World's Boreal Forest (Hardcover)

Envronmental issues are technical and philosophical at a level that even high school graduates are not properly equipped to critically interpret. Apparently the authors of Cool Woods do not care to be any more critical, but with less excuse. Notable is their illogical argument claiming the Boreal Forests are the "Lungs of the Earth"

The phrase "Lungs of the Earth" was originally coined to describe the ecological position of Rainforests, but even that application is wrong. It is far more likely that the top 200 metres of the oceans serve that function. Such facts can be verified scientifically, if one were to do the work. Drake and Love have not.

Indeed, Drake (an activist with Pollution Probe in Toronto) and Love even provide information that should cause an alert reader to question their preservationist position. They describe the boreal forest saying, "If you walked around the world through the boreal forest, you'd find few roads". Yet, taking its lead from the book, their publisher's review says, "Despite our reliance on it, we have placed the "lungs of the earth" under siege with clear-cutting, acid rain, and even radioactivity." If the Boreal Forest is in such need of preservation, how can both arguments really be true?

They treat the philosophical principles that underpin their Environmentalist position as foregone conclusions never daring to state them explicitly. Do they realize it is too abstract for their young readers, preferring instead to indoctrinate them with half truths and feelgood claims about the very real beauty of the Boreal Forest (Love has done a good job in that respect) or are they trying not to alert their target audience?

The implicit message, again and again, is that Mankind must be subordinated to Nature, and our actions should be curtailed accordingly. That addresses a very fundamental question of philosophy: Do Humans have the right to exist on their own terms? In "Cool Woods" Drake and Love are telling your children they do not have that right!