Leaf Man

by Patricia J. Miranda, Chris O'Leary (Illustrations)

A richly illustrated fable of hope, perseverance, and renewal.

While wandering through a field of stumps that was once a forest, a boy collects twigs and sticks and leaves that remain and decides to create something new. He makes a figure―a leaf man―who inspires him to dream and invent, to plant the seed for a better world. Based on the ancient folklore of the "green man" as a symbol of renewal, lyrical text and immersive visual storytelling fills this uplifting picture book with optimism for the future.

Genres: Picture Books, Nature

32 pages, Hardcover

Published March 1, 2019

Reviews

[Jessi Hart]

This is a super easy book to read. The sentences are short and easy to understand and the message is powerful. This book reflects the ups and downs of life and how you can overcome anything. It is full of hope and the illustrations help you feel the power in those words. "there will be times" is a quote from the book that reflects upon hard times in ones life that can be overcome through preserving. even though there are hard concepts for young readers to understand, I think it is important for them to hear these things at a young age. Also the test is very easy to read with short sentences and more of a picture based theme. This teaches children that everything will be okay and that friendships are important.

[Andy]

AN ACCESSIBILITY DISASTER

I bought this book to read with my vision impaired neice. Not only was it light on actual words to read, it contains illustrations that she really struggled to see. For example - black spiders against wooden tree bark. Black objects on dark brown. Green leaves on green grass. Greens on green. Not only was she bewildered as to what she was supposed to be seeing she was confused about what the words meant.

It's completely unacceptable in this day and age for an illustrative work to show complete disregard for accessibility standards. Blatant disrespect for the vision impaired. It's disgraceful!

Avoid it at all costs!

[Lauren]

This book is rather dark. It starts with a boy in a decimated forest. He makes a little friend out of leaves, other kids laugh at him, his leafy friend falls apart in the wind. The message seems to be, "life sucks, IDK, try planting a tree or disassociating." Which, actually, now that I think about it, isn't the worst advice. The paragraph on the last page about the Green Man from European folklore is this most interesting thing in this book. I have always found the Green Man fascinating and I wish this book was more about that.

[Esther N]

I liked it better than The Giving Tree, lol. Admittedly, that doesn't take much, but this one felt more hopeful with the child using his agency to improve a sad situation and not give up under the scornful watch of several peers. The words were more of a moral than a story. The spread-wide illustrations did all of the storytelling, and they were nicely done.

[Megan Richards]

When life gives you lemons...
Simple illustrations with few words but with a big message. I think the adults will get more out of this than the children but I would still like to try it at storytime with a nature loose pieces activity to follow.

[L'Wanda Greenlaw]

The perfect Story Time read for Earth Day!

[Deanna]

Endearing and an easy read.

[Emma]

Stunning book about hope, resilience, and growth, and how nature provides all three. Beautiful illustrations.

[Dwayne]

Complete and utter load of crap

[Patricia]

Waste of money. My son hated it. Load of nonsense. Do yourself a favour and buy something else.

[Dodie]

This is a good book about trees for kids.

[wildct2003]

Nice book about hope for the future.