Poetrees (review)

An established poetic documentarian of the natural world, Florian here takes off for the woods, or, to be more accurate, the trees. Eighteen poems cover tree characteristics or elements ("The Seed," "Leaves," "Bark") or types of tree ("Coconut Palm," "Monkey Puzzle Tree," "Bristlecone Pine") in his familiar pithy, punny rhyme. The verses fall short of Florian's usual accomplished standard, and some of the concluding wordplays are rather strained; the breadth of focus for the subject is impressive, though, and the compact entries will function well as both readalouds and readalones. The mixed-media illustrations, on spreads oriented the long way (reading vertically across the gutter) to achieve tree-suitable length, are particularly strong on exploring textures; as a result, the portraits, especially those dependent on crayonlike oil pastel lines, don't necessarily capture the characteristics of the subject species, but others offer an offbeat artistic evocation of their arboreal focus. A "glossatree" of terms and a brief bibliography are appended.