The Tree Lady: The True Story of How One Tree-Loving Woman Changed a City Forever by H. Joseph Hopkins (review)

This picture-book biography of Katherine Olivia Sessions traces the nineteenth-century horticulturist from curious child with an affinity for trees, to the first woman to graduate with a science degree from the University of California, to schoolteacher with a vision for a greener, cooler, shadier San Diego than the sun-scorched patch she viewed from her classroom window. Determined to identify plants suitable to the local climate and soil, she "became a tree hunter" on the lookout for "trees that like hot, dry weather and steep hills and canyons." Soon she had San Diego's City Park blooming, and when the city hosted the Panama-California Exposition, she galvanized volunteers and took charge of landscaping. The lively text, with its frequent repetitions of "Kate did," "she did," they did," etc., exudes an optimistic, can-do attitude that will make listeners feel they're in the presence of a newfound hero. McElmurry's paintings, which add a dash of playfulness to a folk-art style, convey both the possibilities of the bare orange landscape and the lushness and variety of Sessions' mature plantings. An author's note offers additional detail, but the main text handily describes how a scientist-turned-teacher-turned-activist created her leafy legacy well into the twentieth century.