Tree Home, Who Lives in Ancient Redwoods? by Lori Peelen (Author), Katharine Cameron (Illustrator)

Once in a while, a project comes along that completely takes over your brain. It feels like biting into a dark chocolate cake. A fabulous, rich chocolate dessert. A project that becomes you, and keeps you excited and working harder....

A project where, halfway through, you realize you are genuinely going to miss it when it's over.

That project for me was Tree Home: Who Lives in Ancient Redwoods?

BUY IT

And I am so unbelievably excited to finally say: it is officially published and available to buy.

You can find it on Amazon, and it is also available through Barnes & Noble, and MANY MORE LOCATIONS which still feels slightly surreal to say. There is also hopefully going to be a signing event at Surgeon's Mill during Father’s Day weekend, although that part is still TBD at the moment. Fingers crossed, because I cannot put this project down, even now that it's published!

This 56-page graphic novel was created with local author Lori Peelen, who is based in Occidental and has written several award-winning conscious children’s books. Lori’s writing is warm, funny, educational, and deeply caring without ever feeling preachy. It's real and true and funny... but along the way you learn and appreciate. The book talks to Grandfather Red, an ancient redwood tree, and introduces readers to the incredible animals that rely on old-growth redwood forests to survive.

And yes, before anyone asks: the animals absolutely discuss poop.

(Oh? You weren't going to ask if there was poop talk in this book?? Um... oops.) Well. It is awesome. I'm a little kid at heart, and when reading Lori Peelens first manuscript I laughed outloud in the coffee shop.

One of my favorite illustrations in the entire book is a flying squirrel flying through the redwood canopy while pooping. Flying and pooping?? Hilarious!! This is a very important ecological process and also objectively hilarious to draw.

The voles contribute to this situation too, so please know there are multiple opportunities throughout the book for children, adults, and apparently me, to laugh at woodland creatures pooping in the name of forest conservation.

The story takes readers from the forest floor all the way up into the canopy, introducing creatures like spotted owls, marbled murrelets, Pacific fishers, giant barking salamanders, flying squirrels, red tree voles, and Benny the Banana Slug, who may or may not be one of my personal favorites. Every character explains not only how they survive in ancient redwoods, but how they contribute to the health of the entire ecosystem.

Which means this book manages to teach ecology, inspires conservation, touches on history, and dabbles in biology, for a total environmental science, kid nerd-out. WHILE also making me laugh out.

One thing I learned while illustrating this book is just how unique ancient redwood forests actually are. These ecosystems exist almost exclusively along the Northern California and Southern Oregon coastlines. And unlike younger forests, ancient redwoods cannot simply be “replaced” overnight. You cannot cut down a thousand-year-old ecosystem and expect a newly planted tree farm to recreate what was lost. The oldness is important!

That’s one of the major themes of the book.

Why do these animals specifically need ancient redwoods?

Why can’t they just move into younger forests?

The book explores all of that in a way that feels accessible and engaging for younger readers while still being genuinely interesting for adults. I genuinely, actually, forreal found myself learning constantly while working on it. The story travels through the history of California’s redwoods, including logging, settlement, conservation efforts, and even all the way back to woolly mammoth times at one point!! Think about that for a second. That's old-old!

Grandfather Red himself acts almost like a narrator and guide throughout the story. He explains how he protects the creatures that live within him and around him, how interconnected the forest ecosystem really is.

But then there also is a banana slug... and flying pooping squirrel, and a barking salamander.

The balance works beautifully.

From the illustration side, this project was enormous for me. I hand-drew every page over the course of several years. I learned an entirely new illustration workflow for it, including teaching myself Procreate and switching to drawing on an iPad specifically for this book. It completely changed how I approach illustration work and storytelling. My style developing as I went, because you don't get thousands of hours of drawing done and stay the same. By the time I was at the end of the book, I needed to revisit the beginning of the book and start over!

Not one moment of it was long, or boring. I loved every second of it.

By the end of the project, saying goodbye to the book honestly felt weirdly emotional. Before we had even fully wrapped production, conversations about future books in the Tree Home series had already started because neither of us really wanted to leave these characters behind yet.

That has to be a good sign. :)

This book is technically aimed at readers around ages 8 to 12, with younger kids enjoying it as a read-aloud story, but genuinely, I think adults will have fun with it too. I certainly did. I have a copy proudly sitting on my own shelf.

This project is different.

It feels so special.

Partly because it is educational. Partly because it is funny. Partly because the message is one I can stand behind proudly. But also working with Lori Peelen is an absolute blessing that I will forever be grateful for. Her care and kindness go so far beyond client/hired illustrator. She's an absolute gem. She's always busy running around helping her family, educating the public, and working with people who work for the trees. I cannot say enough good things about Lori. She basically handed me the coolest project ever and said "have at it." I am hashtag blessed, y'all. Truly. This is a good-vibes project through and through, and I hope it comes off that way. It was fun to make, fun to collab on, fun to publish -- and hopefully fun to sign (TBA).

If you love redwoods, environmental education, illustrated stories, quirky animal characters, Northern California history, or simply books that clearly had a lot of heart poured into them, I really hope you check it out.