Red Pines on the Ridge

Joan McGrath is a Toronto Board of Education library consultant.

Scientific accuracy of observation and description need not preclude poetry, as this story of the life cycle of the Pinus resinosa or “red pine” attests. The author-naturalist speaks through the forest monarch who describes the events of a life-span of “nearly 300 summers.” On the low ridge, inhospitable to most life forms but exactly right for the red pine, a tiny seedling grows over the years to enormous maturity, while around its base surges the ever-changing life of the wild. It stands while animals and people, tribesmen and whites, come, busy themselves for a time, and vanish. Almost miraculously it survives fire, flood, drought, and the onslaught of men with saws and broadaxes, while many of its kind are brought low. Now, its lifespan almost fulfilled, calmly it foretells the day the necessary cycle will be completed, when it will succumb to the wind and in its turn descend to the forest floor. Through the life history of one tree, that of all its kind is brought alive to the imagination of young readers. Lissa Calvert’s lovely illustrations, both black-and-white and coloured plates, enhance the story. A list of reference works is provided.