Walking Trees

A review of Walking Trees by Marie-Louise Gay

Published on March 14, 2024

City life is exciting. It’s lively, charming, and full of opportunity, yet the urban landscape can also prove to be cramped, noisy, smoggy, and in the summertime, especially hot. Touched by a contemporary “walking” forest project carried out in a northern town in the Netherlands, Marie-Louise Gay brings us Walking Trees, a story that gives readers a taste of how sweet the effects of going green can be.

Walking Trees
Marie-Louise Gay

Groundwood Books
$21.99
cloth
36pp
9781773069760

An undeclared environmentalist, all Lily wants for her birthday is a tree. When she finds one waiting for her on the balcony the next morning, rather than stare down at the world from above, Lily decides to take her tree – which she names George – out on the streets to experience city life. Wherever they go, the shade George provides is a welcome gift to everyone they meet. When some of the other kids in the neighbourhood realize how cool having a tree really is, they join Lily’s movement and get trees of their own.

It’s not long before the small crew of tree enthusiasts turns into a walking forest, providing relief to fellow residents enduring the rising summer heat. The walking forest soon becomes an entire community movement, as more people, plants, flowers, and even birds join the party! Another gem added to Gay’s oeuvre, Walking Trees will get readers excited about summer, and certainly even more excited about the idea of bringing nature closer to home. A fine pick for the budding environmentalist, leader, or changemaker in the family.mRb

Phoebe Yì Lǐng is a freelance writer, editor, and full-time explorer. She currently works with the Nunavik Inuit community as a Gladue writer and sometimes spends her time dabbling in experimental performance or marvelling at the complexities of intra/interpersonal communication.