I Begin with Spring: The Life and Seasons of Henry David Thoreau
by Julie Dunlap; illus. by Megan Elizabeth Baratta
Intermediate, Middle School    Tilbury    96 pp.    g
3/22    978-0-88448-908-5    $18.95

Dunlap begins her illustrated biography with a question posed by Thoreau in a school report, his earliest known writing: “Why do the seasons change?” She anchors the book solidly in primary-source material, following Thoreau’s copious recorded observations of nature, including his classic work Walden, crafting an insightful and vivid portrait for readers. Baratta’s delicately detailed illustrations, which appear to be rendered in watercolor and ink, feature the birds, butterflies, trees, and other parts of nature Thoreau talked about in his journals and letters; each specimen is carefully labeled with its common and/or scientific name (such as “birdsfoot violet / Viola pedata”). A timeline runs across the bottom of many pages, marking days of the year as the book moves through the seasons with specific notes Thoreau made on a particular day: “June 5, Woodpecker nest in apple tree.” Dunlap discusses the importance of her subject’s work in a modern-day study of climate change, encouraging readers to become citizen scientists and record what they see, too. The biography reflects not just Thoreau’s interest in natural history but also his political stances (he and his family were passionate abolitionists), his interest in scientific thought (he read On the Origin of Species with keen interest), and his relationships with other notable contemporaries, including Ralph Waldo Emerson and Louisa May Alcott. An excellent introduction to Thoreau and the turbulent times in which he lived.

From the May/June 2022 issue of The Horn Book Magazine.