A review by laurareads87
Trees: Their Natural History by Peter A. Thomas

informative slow-paced

5.0

Trees: Their Natural History is an excellent introduction to trees; the author concludes by writing that he hopes that the book "helps [the reader] appreciate how the trees around [them] are working and why they look and act the way they do" [385] and I think this is a good summary of what the book indeed achieves.  As someone with no background in the natural sciences, I found it the right degree of difficulty for me: it was definitely challenging and I learned a lot of new scientific terms, but it was not so difficult as to be impenetrable.  The book is full of interesting facts, informative charts and tables, well described photos, and explanations of phenomena one can observe in one's own environment.  The book includes discussion of trees from all continents and climates, so any reader will find something relevant to their local ecology while also getting to learn about many trees they may never have seen before.