Log Life by Amy Hevron (2024)

It’s Earth Week! I am often writing about nature, but this week is especially important for a little nature Kidlit! Log Life is the perfect book for a nature-loving family, a science teacher, or a forest preserve educator. During the pandemic, my little family (my kids were very little!) took solace in the many forest preserves here in Lake County, Illinois. The unlimited time to explore outdoors is my favorite memory of the pandemic. Log Life (2024) has helped me answer many lingering questions about the forest. In this story, a Douglas Fir Tree collapses on the floor of the temperate rainforest in the Pacific Northwest. After nearly one thousand years of life, this decaying log, which is called a nurse log, begins a new “life.” It provides food and shelter for fungi, beetles, ants, snails, voles, salamanders and more! Amy Hevron is both author and illustrator of this lovely book and the illustrations of the voles, beetles and mushrooms are absolutely wonderful. 

Head: In this picture book, I learned that the fungi that grows near the bottom of a tree and is wavy and looks like the roof of a cottage home is called, “Chicken mushroom!”

Heart: There is something so inspiring about the tiny ecosystem of this nurse log. We know that trees are part of the solution to climate change, breathing in the copious amounts of carbon. It is so fitting, though, that even in death, trees continue to give so much to their forest community.