Happy Arbor Day! These 20 books will change the way you think about trees
Trees communicate. They migrate. They protect. They heal. This year for Arbor Day this year we climbed into the NPR archives to find our favorite arboreal fiction, nonfiction and kids' books.
Scroll down to find excerpts from interviews and reviews, plus recommendations from Books We Love — NPR's annual, year-end books guide.
Nonfiction
Twelve Trees: The Deep Roots of Our Future by Daniel Lewis, 2024
There are tens of thousands of tree species on Earth, but writer Daniel Lewis focused in on just a dozen in his book, Twelve Trees. Lewis spoke with Ari Shapiro on All Things Considered in March: "The natural world needs our attentions, plural ..." he said. "I want people to understand that the salvation of trees can be our salvation."
Lewis believes trees and people have more in common than you might think. "These 12 trees each say something about ourselves because trees are not just about trees. ... We live among them, and they live among us, so I think we have an obligation to understand them better."
Better Living Through Birding: Notes from a Black Man in the Natural World by Christian Cooper, 2023
Christian Cooper was birdwatching in Central Park in 2020 when a white woman falsely accused him of threatening her. His book chronicles life as a Black birder, gay activist and Marvel comics writer and editor. In 2023 on : "Birds belong to no one. They are for everyone to enjoy. And it is an incredibly healing thing to be
