This is a nice book about trees.

It's impossible to fact-check the claims she makes in it, as none of her statements are footnoted or referenced, so it's entirely possible that everything she says is invented; but it is (largely) warm and fuzzy, and if you like trees, you will probably enjoy reading it.

The last chapter was quite different; she relates a prophecy (unreferenced) about the destruction of the world presaged by an epidemic that attacks maple trees. The earth itself is dying. Adults have been corrupted. But young people, communicating telepathically over the world, save the world by saving their parents and opening their eyes.

The book was published in 2015, 3 years before the climate strikes started. And internet communications isn't telepathy, and I haven't yet seen an epidemic attacking maple trees, but the parallels did strike me. ( )

Best read in an altered state or perhaps its the book itself that induces an altered state. Fascinating melange of science and story. The tree (the global forest) as essential (yes, we know this), primary & primordial. The tree as food producer, healer, and life-sustainer. Beresford-Kroeger's is a unique & important voice. ( )

There is no question that Beresford-Kroeger, a botanist and medical biochemist who is an expert on the medicinal, environmental, and nutritional properties of trees set out with all the right intentions with this series of essays on the many reasons—both known and obscure—as to why trees are essential to the planet and to humanity. With essay titles ranging from "A Suit for Sustainability", "The Paranormal", "The Forest, the Fairy, and the Child", "Two-Tier Agriculture", "Medicinal Wood" and "Green Sex and the Affairs of the Heart" (yes, this one is about the sex life of trees), among many others, two things become clear: that this woman is passionate about trees and, while she makes scientific and climactic arguments that can't be argued with, her more spiritual leanings and esoteric ideas can't be an easy sale for the average reader. Which might explain why this book hasn't made any best-seller lists. It might have worked better were she a more gifted writer and better able to structure her ideas, but I found that from one essay to the other, some notions kept being repeated, while others were a bit too far-fetched for me, even though I have claimed in the past to be a Forest Fairy myself... I badly wanted to love this book, because I too passionately love trees (my name means "tree" in Hebrew, and I've often felt myself to be one too), and because this book was a gift from a beloved aunt who's opinions matter to me and who took the time to have the book signed by the author in my name. But really, it left me feeling quite dejected mostly, though I can't fault the author for that; it's just that, like most other appeals for conservancy and the preservation of nature and animal species, it just seems like such a lost cause sometimes, even though I support as many of the worthy causes as I can. But maybe that's just my own lack of optimism getting in the way. ( )