Principal characters
Merwin, a sycamore seed
Louise, his sister, a sycamore seed
The Ambassadors, a troupe of three mushrooms who live in the soil and help the forest beings communicate
King Seaweed, a fearsome ruler from the plant world whose kingdom is rebuilt by a pufferfish each day
The Scientists, microorganisms that record data across time
Spot, a winged insect called a lacewing who is befriended by Louise and Merwin
The Giants, the dinosaurs of the Cretaceous period
Author, illustrator, and screenwriter Brian Selznick is celebrated for his works that combine drawings with lyrical prose to create new, poignant worlds. Indeed, those worlds have been so intriguing that several have prompted filmmakers to adapt them for the screen. His New York Times Best Seller The Invention of Hugo Cabret (2007), for example, was adapted by director Martin Scorsese into the Oscar-winning film Hugo (2011), while fellow best-seller Wonderstruck (2011) was adapted by filmmaker Todd Haynes. The illustrated children’s novel Big Tree shares a similar origin to Selznick’s previous novels in its ties to the film world. As the author details in the afterword, famed director Steven Spielberg approached Selznick about creating a movie that would celebrate nature. He wanted the film to come from the point of view of nature in a time before the dinosaurs roamed the world. Selznick, eager to collaborate, loved the idea but suggested they move the time frame forward to create a more interesting world for audiences, especially children. The project was upended by the COVID-19 pandemic, however, and Selznick ultimately asked his collaborators if he could turn their collective idea into what would become Big Tree.
Big Tree is a novel that makes the intangible understandable through the creation of relatable and endearing characters, beautiful illustrations, and a fast-paced story that unfurls over the course of more than five hundred pages. The story begins in the Cretaceous Period, a time when dinosaurs roamed the earth. Two sycamore seeds named Louise and Merwin (after poet W. S. Merwin, whose poem “Place” served as inspiration for Big Tree) live a happy, cozy life with their fellow siblings in a seedpod attached to the branches of their mother tree, named Mama. However, their world is upended when the Ambassadors, a trio of mushrooms who travel the forest floor collecting and dispersing important information, warn Mama that trouble is on the way. A forest fire leaves Merwin and Louise clinging to each other as they try to find a place to call home, one with the three essentials: soil, light, and water (but not too much).
Before they find their forever home, though, the pair must brave encounters with sea creatures and dinosaurs and survive the depths of a crater formed from a footprint and an active volcano, among other hazards. Their journey eventually crosses over into the present day, when Selznick fast-forwards the story to the Anthropocene era, ending in a poignant connection between the ancient past and the present. Along the way, Selznick explores important themes of conservation and personal responsibility.
Selznick’s gift in creating Big Tree lies in his ability to create depth out of simplicity. His illustrations and words connect through a shared sensibility of lyricism, motion, and feeling that adds up to a much larger whole than might be expected. As the story begins, the reader meets Merwin and Louise, who are waiting to mature and drop from their mother tree’s branches. To evoke a sense of the serene beauty of the world they are living in, Selznick does something seemingly simple but filled with an artist’s skill: he has Merwin describe the world around them to his sister. Louise is a much smaller sycamore seed than her siblings and as a result is nestled behind them in a place on the seedball where she cannot see. Her brother describes for her the stars and the moon, the darkness of night, and the feelings such scenes evoke. Selznick uses words sparingly—often a page contains only one sentence—allowing a world to be built that is easy for readers to understand and imagine.
Selznick also employs effective repetition throughout the book, with the moon and night sky holding particularly important places in the imaginations of his plant and human characters. Indeed, one of the first things Louise notices when she is free of the seedpod is the night sky, a sight she has wanted to experience for the entirety of her young life. Thanks to Selznick’s skill in setting up the nighttime sky as a point of desire for Louise, the reader is doubly rewarded when she experiences it for the first time. Later, toward the book’s conclusion, the moon and night sky once again fill the imagination of those peering at them—this time, a young boy and his caretaker who stare at the same moon and stars as the seeds viewed millions of years ago.
To evoke a sense of continuity through such a wide span of time, Selznick establishes a disembodied voice called the Old One, which represents planet Earth. The Old One speaks to Louise, as well as to other beings throughout the book, including the Scientists—single-cell microorganisms—and a grove of ferns the two seeds encounter. The Old One has been warning of changes that are coming, dangers even, that the seeds and others must look out for. Some of these dangers are catastrophes that are well known now, such as the comet that caused the dinosaurs’ extinction. But the Old One does not speak only of danger. Once Louise and Merwin have met their fates as seeds, the Old One is given a chance to speak, and it speaks of the creation of the solar system, the earth, and the moon. This is done in a way that may be too lyrical for some young readers, as the concepts are already rather abstract and become even more so in the voice of an ancient omniscient being. But, because of the careful tone Selznick has established through his illustrations and characters, even this more abstract moment feels poignant.
The timelessness that Selznick establishes with the Old One is further deepened in the afterword by the author, which provides background for the science behind his writing. Readers learn that the story and characters of Big Tree are rooted in science. For example, creatures like the Scientists do, in fact, exist; Selznick explains that these single-cell organisms were alive when the dinosaurs roamed the Earth and continue to live in our oceans today. They are creatively introduced into the story as creatures living deep inside a spiraling shell the seeds have found themselves trapped inside by the aptly named King Seaweed. Another interesting detail Selznick shares in the afterword relates to King Seaweed himself. Selznick explains that, though no fossil evidence is available to confirm that seaweed-like plants existed during the Cretaceous period, these types of plants did likely inhabit the sea and other bodies of water, creating lush worlds.
Selznick also lends facts to his theme of continuity with a brief discussion of the character Spot, a lacewing, or a type of insect commonly found in gardens in the present day. The author explains lacewings would have been found during the Cretaceous period as well, with fossil evidence to support those beliefs. This fact is likely to amaze young readers, who may delight in going outside and interacting with a hero of Louise and Merwin’s journey, as Selznick makes sure to suggest as a possibility. Selznick further notes that while the type of sycamore trees he has drawn in the book is not scientifically accurate, sycamores in a different form were alive during the story’s time. Selznick’s careful attention to scientific detail adds more intimacy to his story, rather than creating a barrier for readers.
Much like his other books, Selznick’s Big Tree was greeted eagerly and enthusiastically by critics. Publishers Weekly, School Library Journal, and BookPage all gave the book starred reviews, with the latter calling it “an awe-inspiring odyssey.” Many critics commented on Selznick’s intricate illustrations, such as the anonymous Publishers Weekly reviewer who wrote: “Silvery, deeply textural drawings move elegantly between planet-scale drama, microscopic life, and Louise and Merwin’s shifting surroundings.” However, some deemed the illustrations excessive, like the Kirkus reviewer who commented the book was “spun out to doorstopper dimensions” by its overuse of artwork.
In School Library Journal, Shelly M. Diaz commented on the book’s most prominent themes, which might have felt too heavy under another author. “Weighty themes of connectedness, conservation, and the impact that one small voice can have on the fate of the universe might feel unfathomable and too big for children, but in Selznick’s hands, this poignant fable will resonate with all readers, young and old,” wrote Diaz. Writing for the New York Times, reviewer Nicola Davies considered Selznick’s novel alongside a recent release from writer Dave Eggers. She reflected on the themes of animals and conservation present in both works, noting of Big Tree, “We need brave, big stories like these, stories that help children (and adults) find their place in a sometimes frightening world.” Davies further considered the novel’s “sober but inspiring message,” which is summed up in a line near the end of the book after Louise and Merwin spot an asteroid in the distance: “Louise and Merwin knew that even the smallest among them could fight for the future, no matter how impossible or dangerous things seemed right now.”