Pando is a grove of quaking aspen tress in Utah consisting of 40,000 trees that are all connected. This is a lovely book giving information about this forest and the danger it's in, in a beautiful way.

This book was a little tougher of a read to keep my daughter entertained. It was a little more wordy then some of our other reads. But I liked that the writing was written like a fiction story but also had facts on the bottom of the pages. And facts in the back.

Free ARC from Netgalley.

Pando is the word for a type of self cloning trees. This book is about the huge and wonderful pando forest in Utah.

I like learning things from beautiful children's nonfiction books! I'd never heard of this before and it was really interesting. And sad that it's threatened by human behavior! Save the pando forest!

I want to thank the author, Capstone publisher, and #netgalley for an e-ARC in exchange for my honest review. My two kids and I all really enjoyed the full-page hand-painted pictures of aspens that filled every page in this beautiful book. We learned about how aspens are linked together under the ground, and how sensitive they are to the actions of people and animals around them. This story was an accessible way to talk to the kids about climate change and how humans are affecting the planet. My older kid liked the little fact bubbles present on many pages. I found it odd that the copy of this book that I received included photographs in the last few pages that had "shutterstock" watermarks embedded in the images. I hope the publisher is planning to either replace these with fully-licensed images, or just remove them altogether in lieu of more of the gorgeous illustrations.

This is a cute little story, but it felt disjointed and confusing until I got to the very end and read the end material about Pando being an actual place. Once I read the end material, I re-read the book and simply loved it. It's a great portrayal of how humankind is hurting nature, and that we can take steps to make things better.

The illustrations are beautiful and help tell the story, and there are science facts interspersed throughout that really help the reader understand what Pando is, and how we can help it continue to grow.

I'd love a short page at the end with action steps that families can take, even if they don't live near Pando, and why our actions matter even if we don't live closeby.

Forests are awe-inspiring, and this book channels that energy authentically. Did you know that Aspen groves could be entirely one organism? I didn't. SO SO cool. Will read with my kids, for sure.

Read advance copy ebook via NetGalley

Such a beautiful children's nonfiction picture book that discusses the Pando, a huge cluster of cloned trees are the interconnected at the roots which are not only the world's largest and oldest living things but were named as one of the 40 wonders of America. Breathtaking illustrations! I highly recommend this book to kids of all ages. Thanks so much to #netgalley for an early review copy.

"All these trees are one being,
called by one name:
Pando.
In the old language of Latin
its name means I spread."

With some of the most exhilarating illustrations you can imagine, by Turine Tran, this book asks us to care about the 40,000 aspens that comprise Pando in Utah and its shrinking environment. Can we save Pando? And by saving Pando, can we perhaps save ourselves?

"Like trees linked by their roots
people, animals, and plants
are all connected.
We can make a world where we all
have room to grow."

It might be a bit of a stretch to ask a small child to understand and find the compassion to stand up for Pando. But with the right guidance from an impassioned parent, I can see this book inspiring activism and the kind of effort needed to preserve this treasure.

A beautiful celebration to the wonders of nature and specifically the Aspen ‘Pando’. I think this picture-book will inspire children from all around the world not just the US or Canada.

Told beautifully against a brightly illustrated background; lovely textured illustrations by Turine Tran. The beginning text (page 4) reads similarly to the end of the story (page 26), suggesting a cycle of life; an endless loop.

The use of information at the base of the spreads and in a different font, instead of using it within the text of the story, is very easy for a child to understand and I learnt quite a lot about the Pando myself.

It’s good to read ‘hope’ half way through the book, not just the end, thus creating an environment of problems to solve or debate, that the children can get involved in, whether at home, at school or in the local community or countrywide campaigns.

Plenty of material referenced at the end of the book, which is always useful for this kind of book, but I think it is a shame that shutter-stock watermarked photographs are used as reference material. With such lovely illustrations throughout, of these aspen trees, I don’t think this is necessary and actually cheapens the overall appeal of the book. There is at least one beautiful photograph here with no watermark on it. Just one would be enough but if more imagery is required, an illustration of the landscape would have been far better or spot illustrations to break up the text.

Very wonderful book, especially the illustrations make the book seem like a video.
Lots of fun facts told in an interesting way. The poem works too. Great way to think about sustainability and ensuring our treasures are guarded.

A beautiful illustrated book for children on the Aspen tree known as the Pando. I learned a few things myself and it is a reminder what a beautiful fragile world we live in. A great book to share with your children and then plan a trip to see living breathing Aspen trees. Interesting facts and beautifully displayed.

A Special thank you to Capstone Publishing and Netgalley for the ARC and the opportunity to post an honest review.

Wow, I love this book!

It’s educational AND inspirational, which is typically a hard line to walk. It was encouraging to readers, as it introduced how beautiful the Pondo is, and how important it is- but oh no! Pondo is shrinking! Why is it shrinking and how can we help? It was very well written. I loved the little fun facts at the end of each page.
The only thing that annoyed me was that even a group of TREES is assigned a gender 🙄 like... I understand biological sex of trees but assigning gender and pronouns to a group of trees seemed a bit much to me.
Perhaps it’s just my radical feminist agenda getting in the way.
Oh well.
Netgalley gave me a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

ARC kindly received from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

This book was beautiful. The illustrations were breathtaking, and the poetry was stunning. I really like how there were facts interspersed between the verses, however they took up very little space on each page, allowing the poem and the illustrations to (quite rightly) remain the focus.

There was a lot more information and a glossary at the back of the book, meaning this was an imaginative mix of a non-fiction book, poetry, and beautiful artwork.

Pando is not something I had heard of before, but now something I would like to research! Although this book is aimed at children, and I read it with an intention of sharing it with my class, I think it could be enjoyed by all ages.

A visually flawless look at one of the most remarkable instances of nature – thousands and thousands of aspens, all cloned from the one same seed millennia ago (it's so old, humans have had the wheel for not quite half its life). The text wishes us to experience the wonder of the thing, and also to worry about how it's come up against a brick wall called human 'progress', and faces an uncertain future. Now, I have no problem with the text being in poetic structure, for it slows the reader down, makes us concentrate more and get the gist more eloquently – or we would if it were not for most pages having a footnote to interject, which in the visual language of comic books seems to have been voiced by a bunch of fallen leaves. These scientific notes are also very welcome, but they also really distract from the mood of the rest of the piece. If a better way to balance the art and the facts, if you like, had been found, this would have been wonderful. Three and a half stars.

This gorgeous picture book describes one of the 40 Wonders of America: Pando. Pando, amazingly enough, is an Aspen grove that started as a single seed and grew into 47,000 clones sharing a single root system. The poetic narrative is almost as beautiful as the sparkling illustrations. This is not only a book I want to purchase to add to my child's library, but one that will ride with us in our RV now that we will have to go see this amazing feat of nature for ourselves. This book will be instrumental in saving Pando, sharing the awe and wonder of this place with children and their caregivers.

I received a digital ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review. Thank you to NetGalley and Capstone Editions.