Here's LOOKING At You, Margaret Lowman!

 When a picture book hits the sweet spot of my admiration radar, I'm on board before even opening the cover. In this case the author (Heather Lang), genre (biography), subject fields (rainforests and environmental issues), meeting someone new (Margaret Lowman), and inspiring young readers to activism are combined in a book that has me cheering.

Calkins Creek
Imprint of Boyds Mills & Kane 2021

I hope this picture book will do the same for you, and that you'll join me in singing its praises and sharing it widely. THE LEAF DETECTIVE: How Margaret Lowman Uncovered Secrets in the Rainforest is written by Heather Lang and illustrated by Jana Christy. It's hard for me to imagine anyone who is not a fan of the rainforest, and anyone who doesn't have a strong impulse toward both curiosity and concern when that subject is mentioned.

 

Before the main text begins, a quotation by Margaret "Canopy Meg: Lowman is showcased on its own page:

"We are PART of our ecosystem, not outside it."

With that quotation and nickname as my introduction to this pioneering rainforest scientist, the author follows with a full spread that anchors a pattern of three things I especially enjoyed and admired: revealing Meg's emotional inner life, including a significant quotation that summarizes specific elements of her biography, and brief science information displayed on a lower corner "leaf" inset on most pages. In the case of this first spread, Meg has spent two decades focused on leaves: thinking, reading studying, researching, hypothesizing about rainforest canopy leaves and ecosystems, but frustrated that no one had ever reached that biome directly.

It's a tricky challenge for a biographer to engage young readers with the adult lifestory of noteworthy folks, with many authors following a cradle-to-grave sequence, launching the "hook" of the childhood years on the first page. In this case, Lang's  opening spread plants adult Meg at the base of a towering rainforest canopy tree with a sense of her pent up frustration about finding a way "UP". What child can't identify with that feeling?

The page turn then draws readers into Meg as a child, a painfully shy, studious girl who "wrapped herself in nature like a soft blanket". That quote is Lang's lovely text, which lands on this spread among colorful and sketchy images of Meg observing, collecting, preserving, and viewing her own backyard leaves from an eye-level tree house, all of which foreshadow the life she would eventually lead. 

The propulsive text and  active images as Meg enters adulthood sustain a sense of her determination and persistence that she developed in her youthful sense of purpose, her physicality and adventuresome approach to direct investigation and science. Despite the voices and forces of convention: "You can't do this. You're a woman. Women don't climb trees", Meg did. Just as in her childhood, she respected her inner voice. She steadily developed the science behind her insight that trees rely on defenses, like toxins and nettles and thorns and poisons, to preserve their lives, and that those very adaptations might be of value to humans, too. She was also increasingly aware of the local and corporate destructive forces that threatened rainforest ecosystems that had been centuries in the making and were disappearing by the minute.

Meg's childhood fascination with leaves, and the ways in which leaves fed and served other life forms, continued as the central driving force for her observations and investigations. Her early attempts at tree climbing and direct observation eventually led to collaborations that improved study for herself and others, that allowed eco-tourists to visit rainforest canopies on elevated walkways.She helped develop ways to establish "emergent layer rafts" as a base to gain, literally, a bird's eye view of life at the top of a rainforest. 

The concluding pages include a photo of Meg, grinning directly at the reader while hanging from a rope sling on the side of a canopy tree. This is followed by a glorious double spread labeled RAINFOREST MAGIC, which requires reorienting the book to a vertical display. That reveals the labeled ayers of the sub-biomes (forest floor, understory, canopy, and emergent) with brief text, size markers, scaled and labeled lifeforms, and color/shade tones indicating the relative penetration of the sun. The final page turn is a wealth of nonfiction resources, including bibliography, video, Meg Lowman's website (check it out!), and source notes for each and every quotation included. 

I'm well aware that picture books are the result of an amalgamation of extraordinary talent, including the author, illustrator, editor, art director, and many more. In this case the physical book is a victory of design and content, from the vertical trim size with stacked text that suggested the rising components of the rainforest, to the lush and dense illustrations that somehow reflect the nearly blurred impact of packed foliage while managing to reveal specific details, curious characters, and dramatic shifts in perspective and size. 

In my first paragraph I mentioned that author Heather Lang was among one of the attractive factors in my pursuit of this book. I had the privilege of sharing an interview with her in a post that is nearly ten years old now, but her responses remain timeless and made me a fan. Her thorough research and writing style make her books irresistible to young readers (and older ones, like me!). 

Meg's pioneering attitude about the significance and value of the rainforest follows a direct course from her childhood personality and interests, The result of her self-acceptance and self-direction have been a lifetime pursuit that has sparked global studies, preservation movements, and improved lives for rainforest residents. This is a book for anyone at any age, but especially for kids who may not see themselves as "fitting in" but will be inspired by Meg's example.