Graphic Novel Reviews: Beneath the Trees: A Fine Summer

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Title: Beneath the trees: A Fine Summer

Published by: Magnetic Press

Written by: Dav

Illustrated by: Dav

ISBN: 9781951719548

Ages: 6+

‘Let’s go outside and play ball together’ is the invitation of Dav’s Beneath the Trees: A Fine Summer.

This charming graphic novel is a gentle read with minimal text and a whole lot of message and heart.

The forest during summer is filled with the sounds of playtime and laughter. Owl is older and wants to spend his daytime asleep, but Mouse and the Squirrels spend their days playing basketball in the nearby pond. Sometimes their play becomes so exuberant that balls bang into Owl’s treehouse or he gets splashed. The more Owl hears the young ones play, the more curious he becomes.

When the neighborhood Mouse and the Squirrels decide to play in Owl’s pond, Owl rediscovers his youth. The story addresses social anxiety, power of play, and bridging the generation gap. There is a charm having the main character learn from the younger generations. Readers will smile at the gentle humor in the narrative and the tone of curiosity and wonder.

The illustrations are bright and adorable. Every page in Beneath the Trees: A Fine Summer is buoyed with a sense of joy, and readers will be rooting for Owl as he makes his decisions. The graphic novel has an open ending that can lead to classroom and family discussion to demonstrate reading comprehension or allow readers to use their imagination and springboard from this story into their own make-believe.

Readers will want plushies of the characters to cuddle because they are drawn to look so cute. With minimal dialogue, the characters are drawn with very clear emotions.

Although Beneath the Trees: A Fine Summer can be read as a standalone, Dav is writing a series of forest friends’ adventures. The series will have a title for every season, and readers should collect them all to fill their year with cute animals, kindness, and gentle reflection.

For fans of Winnie the Pooh, A Wind in the Willows, and Toot and Puddle

-Angela Dabrowski, Senior Library Assistant

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Angela Dabrowski
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