In 1979 in remote northeastern India, sixteen-year-old Jadav Payeng is troubled by the way the river âeoegoes wildâe during monsoon season: it overflows, ravages islands, and decimates wildlife. Young Jadav proposes to plant trees on sandbars and islands as a way to anchor the soil against the riverâe(tm)s raging currents. He starts by planting bamboo seedlings, and when those thrive, he experiments with additional species of trees and plants. Thirty years later, âeoea forest was born,âe drawing birds and wildlife including tigers, rhinos, and elephants, and âeoeguarding the islandâe from future destruction. The illustrations make excellent use of color: vibrant shades of green accompany the many burgeoning forest scenes, but there are also visual surprises in a red dawn sky or orange flames that erupt from a blue-black night scene. Varied page layouts aid in the progression of the action, from Payengâe(tm)s painstaking efforts to sow the seeds to an individual plantâe(tm)s growth. An inspiring true story of an environmental activist whose important work began in his teens and spanned a lifetime. An authorâe(tm)s note provides further information about the âeoeForest Man of India.âe Julie Hakim AzzamMarch/April 2023 p.101 (c) Copyright The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Singh inspires with this biography of Jadav Payeng (b. 1959), who since 1979 has planted and sustained a forest on a river-adjacent sandbar in northeast India. As a youth, Payeng witnesses the death of hundreds of water snakes after they wash ashore and, without shade, bake beneath the sun: "Jadav, a tribal boy, raced to the edge of his river island and stood speechless." Unable to interest elders or the forest department in reforestation efforts, the determined 16-year-old begins solo daily outings to plant bamboo. Cause-and-effect text and layered crayon- and wash-like textures chart the course of Payeng's work tracking diversifying plant life as well as the arrival of first birds and then fauna. The presence of elephants brings problems to a nearby village, but Payeng's savvy stewardship generates the balanced ecosystem the pachyderms require--a happy ending for a still-developing story about "the Forest Man of India." Notes offer context about the figure and the forest. Ages 5--9. (Apr.)

In northeast India in 1979, on an island in a river that annually overflows its banks, a young man named Jadav Payeng discovers that its waters have swept across a sandbar, destroying vegetation and leaving water snakes to die on land. He asks his tribal elders for help, but they dismiss him, saying that trees don't grow on sandbanks. The forest department gives him bamboo seedlings, which he plants on an abandoned island. Every day for years, he plants new seedlings of bamboo and other species as well. As the trees grow, animals arrive, including rabbits, deer, tigers, elephants, and many birds. Now known as the Forest Man, Payeng has created a thriving forest, and he lives there with his family. Showing what one person with limited resources can do to restore the environment, the story celebrates Payeng's vision and determination. The richly colorful illustrations vary from an expressive overhead view of the forceful river to a smaller picture showing the precisely delineated leaves of various trees. An interesting picture book for conservation-minded kids.

On the banks of a river in northeastern India, a boy planted a forest. In 1979, the Brahmaputra River flooded the island of Majuli. Jadav Payeng, a tribal boy, saw many water snakes wash up on the shore; with no trees for shelter, they died. Jadav asked his community for help planting trees. In response, they handed him a bag of seedlings and told him to do the work himself. After years of hard work, he turned a scattering of bamboo seedlings into a thriving forest that supported myriad tree species and became home to a variety of animals and birds. While tigers, rhinos, rabbits, and foxes enjoyed the fruits of his labor, humans were less enthusiastic, especially when a herd of elephants migrating through the newly planted jungle destroyed a village. Eventually, Jadav found a way to balance the needs of the humans, the wild creatures, and the river, which is now kept safe from flooding by a sturdy wall of trees. Jadav's courage, strength, and dedication make him a fascinating protagonist, and the lush, painterly illustrations are lovely. However, the writing often feels lackluster, and the lack of additional context renders the narrative less exciting than it might otherwise have been--it's not until the backmatter, for instance, that we learn that Jadav's work went unnoticed by most others until 2009, when a photographer happened upon the forest. (This book was reviewed digitally.) An underwhelming account of a compelling conservationist. (Informational picture book. 5-8) Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.