THE BOY WHO GREW A FOREST

The true story of a young boy who
built a forest from the ground up in northeastern India.

Inspired by the documentary Forest Man, debut author Gholz pens the story
of Jadav Payeng. The story begins with the erosive impact of seasonal floodwaters
on his island home, which propels Jadav to take action. A group of elders give
him 20 bamboo seedlings to plant. He plants them and waters them every day,
devising various methods of irrigation, and over time, his hard work pays off
and a forest grows. Animals come back, but with them come threats. However,
Jadav inventively copes and continues to protect the forest. While the relative
absence of the community throughout Jadav’s endeavors is somewhat startling,
the story provides young children with a real-life example of the connections
between man and nature. Gholz refers to Jadav throughout the book only as “the
boy” or “the man,” which has a distancing effect. The depictions of Jadav
himself as a child are similarly generic, whereas those of him as an adult are
reasonably accurate to photographs. Moreover, facts indicate that Jadav was 16 when
he started planting the trees, but the book shows him as a much younger child.
The illustrations overall are detailed and engaging, however, with beautiful
imagery of the islands and the forest. Backmatter provides further information,
a glossary, and tips on planting a forest.