Just Like Me, Climbing a Tree: Exploring Trees Around the World by Durga Yael Bernhard Review

Just Like Me, Climbing a Tree: Exploring Trees Around the World  by Durga Yael Bernhard Arbor Day, April 24, 2015, Price $16.95, Trim: 8 x 11, Page Count: 32 hardcover, ISBN: 978-1-937786-34-2 Ages 5 and up

If you were climbing a tree, just what might you see? Birds or animals or insects? Would you swing like a monkey? Or pick the ripest fruit straight from the branch? Join award-winning author and illustrator, Durga Yael Bernhard, on a trip around the world to climb its weirdest and most wonderful trees. No matter if you are in Africa, Asia, Europe, or America, there is a grand adventure waiting for you-provided you have a tree to climb in your neighborhood! Award-winning children's performer Story Laurie (Laurie McIntosh) wrote a  song about this book. It can be downloaded at www.storylaurie.com/just-like-me. Watch Just Like Me, Climbing a Tree Book Trailer HERE About the Author and Illustrator Durga Yael Bernhard was raised in New York's Hudson Valley and began painting at the age of thirteen. Yael is the illustrator, designer, and author of numerous award-winning children's books, including fiction and non-fiction, multicultural folktales, and innovative concept books. She brings a variety of interests to her work, including a strong grounding in African music and dance, studies in Eastern and Western religion, and a love of nature that fills her daily life in the Catskill Mountains. An avid tree lover, she was inspired to create this book by all the trees she has seen at home and in her travels, as well as by the children she has observed climbing them with universal curiosity and wonder. She has written and illustrated several other books about trees, including The Way of the Willow Branch; Earth, Sky, Wet, Dry; The Legend of the Sequoia; and The Tree That Rained. Yael is also a fine artist known for her spiritual and family-oriented themes, and a children's arts-in-ed teacher. She lives in southeastern New York State. My Review: What a fun way to have kids read about exploring! I enjoyed that the reader got to travel around the world and see all the different trees, but that all kids are the same. The book also includes great latin names for the trees so you can do more research if you wanted to. There is more information included about the trees in the back of the book as well. What a fun way to learn! I am giving this book a 5/5. All opinions are my own.