Everything Trail

Meg Fleming is the author of Sometimes Rain, I Heart You, Here Comes Ocean!, Wondering Around, and The Everything Trail. A former voice teacher, Meg draws on her love of rhythm, rhyme, and lyricism to create and imagine stories. She lives in Minneapolis with her family. Visit her at MegFleming.net.Chuck Groenink is the illustrator of The Library Book by Tom Chapin and Michael Mark and many other picture books. Originally from the Netherlands, he now lives with his family in Valatie, New York. When not drawing pictures for books, he likes to read, bake bread, or go hiking, and he wishes he could play the banjo. Visit him online at ChuckGroenink.com.

Two children head into the redwood forest for a hike. Along the way, they collect a few more friends and together discover the marvels of fallen logs, banana slugs, ferns, and towering trees. Inviting her readers in with the almost familiar phrase—“This is the forest. / This is the steeple”—Fleming goes on to describe the plants and animals of this sensory-rich adventure in lilting rhyming text. Groenink’s cheerful, expansive digital illustrations convey both the wonder of the forest itself, with rich greens and shafts of sunlight, and the joy of the wide-eyed multiracial cast of children as they explore and play. This forest is a holy place, and children and their families should be inspired to go outside and look for themselves.