THE BLUE JAYS THAT GREW A FOREST

It takes an avian village to raise an oak tree.

The problem? Acorns must travel out of the shadows of the oaks that produce them if they are to thrive, but they’re too heavy for the wind to blow them away. Enter the blue jays, for whom acorns are both a treat and pre-winter fuel. Street explains how the “blue crew” carry so many at once (“a few stowed in the throat pocket… / one in the mouth, another in the beak”). Other animals are hungry, too, so “the jays must work quickly,” gathering acorns and stashing them for later. The birds search for the buried acorns under snow, and the ones they miss sprout in spring. Nestlings eat insects; summer passes. Soon, “a scold of jays” begins collecting and burying acorns again. And over time, a new forest of oaks thrives. Active verbs (pries, hammers) and elegant imagery (“a flash of sapphire in the sun—blue white”) add resonance. A half dozen final pages explain the science behind the mutualism of oaks and blue jays, both keystone species, and describe several jay species. Hunter’s soft and subtle pen, ink, and colored pencil illustrations, both close-ups and from a distance, and from high and low perspectives alike, are as lyrical and lovely as the text.

An eloquently told story of symbiosis.