It’s good to be home! After a summer of adventures, I loved finding Up in the Leaves: The True Story of the Central Park Treehouses at our library. It’s a nonfiction picture book about a city boy, Bob Redman, who doesn’t feel at home in the city crowds, but finds his own kind of home in the trees of Central Park. He climbs them and builds treehouse after treehouse. Each treehouse is torn down when it’s discovered. And he always responds by building another, even better treehouse. Until finally, the park grounds crew discovers him in his treehouse. It’s a lovely book about how one boy found nature when he needed it and ultimately about the goodness of human nature, helping him find a way to make that passion part of his everyday life.

I was surprised to discover in the author bio on the back flap that the book was written by his partner, the mother of his children. I’m a sucker for family history stories like this. There’s an immediacy and level of detail in family history books that is tough to achieve when the author isn’t part of the family.

The endpapers are some of the loveliest I’ve seen this year–green leaves layered on each other. I kind of want it to be wallpaper in my house. The back matter is very brief–only about 150 words about Bob Redman, but it also includes a wonderful photo of him. Up in a tree, of course!

Up in the Leaves: The True Story of the Central Park Treehouses by Shira Boss, illustrated by Jamey Christoph. (Sterling: 2018).

Alyson Beecher hosts the Nonfiction Picture Book Challenge at kidlitfrenzy.com. Visit there for more great nonfiction picture books!