Big Tree by Brian Selznick

Big Tree, by best-selling author-illustrator Brian Selznick, attempts to capture the wonder of creation without a Creator.

Big Tree by Brian Selznick. Scholastic, 2023, 525 pages.

Reading Level: Middle Grades, ages 8-10

Recommended for: ages 8-15

Flying for their lives

“Do you have something to tell me, stars?”

Louise is only a tiny seed in a sycamore seed ball, and a blind one at that. Her brother Merwin is slightly bigger and located on the outside of the ball so he has some limited range of vision. Mervin may be the eyes, but their Mama has the wisdom to interpret what he sees. Too soon, though, something terrible happens: a stampede of giants rips the ball from the tree and sends the two little seeds flying on their strands of fluff. This is nature’s design for spreading life throughout the planet but from their perspective, they’re off on a dangerous journey with an uncertain end. Merwin is the know-it-all, who finds himself totally out of his depth and usually terrified. Louis is not immune to fear, but also open to wonder.

The two manage to stay together while flying through the air, sinking into the ocean, hitching a ride on an alphadon (precursor to the rat), even surviving the asteroid that ended the age of the dinosaurs. But what happens when they are separated?

Selznick, highly honored for his door-stopping, heavily illustrated tomes beginning with The Invention of Hugo Cabret, received the inspiration for this book from no less a personage than Stephen Spielberg, who proposed a screenplay for a movie depicting nature from nature’s own point of view. How one does this without intruding human thoughts and emotions isn’t explained. The movie project fell through; a book emerged instead. As in all Selznick’s books, the story is told largely through moody, fuzzy, gray-and-white illustrations that one follows sequentially through many pages. That’s why it doesn’t take long to read, despite its 500+ pages (only Selznick can get away with that). Though a story about two fluffy seeds wouldn’t seem that interesting, I found the tiny characters engaging, and their adventures gripping, even philosophical (see their conversation with King Seaweed). It’s a testament to Selznick’s skill that he’s able to do this, but also to his humanity.

A gift–with no giver?

The premise is strictly scientific: Selznick adopts the theory that life came to earth from some other planet by means of an asteroid, and all its forms developed over eons of evolutionary cycles. The Author Note explains references in the story that may be hard for young readers to follow. A major theme is the interconnectedness of Nature, as revealed by recent discoveries about the ability of trees and fungi to communicate through their elaborate root systems. Merwin feels it when he comes to ground: “It moved through his whole body and grew so powerful that it traveled beyond him and rank through the planet like a musical note, connecting Merwin, with invisible roots, to the entire world.”

This vibration, the author suggests, is love (see page 355).

And this, I suggest, reveals the innate capacity of humans for wonder, stubbornly persisting even in a context of cold, soulless, purposeless evolution.  He’s more right than he knows: the harmony of the planet, and of the spheres, is Love. “Life is a gift,” affirms the Old One, whom we understand as Earth itself. The gift assumes a giver, doesn’t it?

Overall Rating: 4 (out of 5)

• Worldview/moral value: 3.5
• Artistic/literary value: 4.5

Read more about our ratings here.

Also at Redeemed Reader:

• Reflection: I had big problems with Selznick’s last-book-before this, The Marvels. See “When Is a Story More Than a Story?
• Review: Before Hugo Cabret, Selznick illustrated The Dinosaurs of Waterhouse Hawkins, to which we gave a starred review.
• Reviews: The Wisdom of Trees presents new research on the interconnectedness of forests in a beautiful volume. Also, for sheer variety and beauty (even from an evolutionary perspective), see Trees: A Rooted History.

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