Sophia Gholz's The Boy Who Grew a Forest : The True Story of Jadav Payeng

The depictions of Jadav as a child are generic, whereas those of him as an adult are reasonably accurate to photographs. Moreover, facts indicate that Jadav was 16 when he started planting the trees, but the book shows him as a much younger child. The illustrations overall are detailed and engaging, with beautiful imagery of the islands and the forest. 

This book is a celebration of environmental awareness and also a true story of a young boy who built a forest from the ground up in northeastern India. The book has been selected for the 2023 North Carolina Children's Book Awards and the writer Sohpia Gholz has done a wonderful job in terms of reiterating a lively message on environmental awareness to young children.

Sophia Gholz's book The Boy Who Grew a Forest : The True Story of Jadav Payang is an insightful story of environmental success. The book shall instill love for the environment in the minds of readers and inspire them to save the environment. Inspired by the documentary Forest Man, debut author Gholz has penned the story of Jadav Payeng. The story begins with the erosive impact of seasonal floodwaters on his home island, which propels Jadav to take action. Unfortunately, deforestation has become synonymous with the forests of Assam. The once magnificent and grandiose forests of this state (in the pre-colonial period) were subjected to adverse transformations under the colonial rule and in the post-colonial period. During this transformation period, the commerce of forestry and the peasant society were considered responsible for deforestation. Few understand the complex dynamics of the changing forest landscape and ecology in Assam from the early nineteenth century to the end of the twentieth century. The role played by forest and conservation laws, forest institutions and organisations including the changing role of the Assam forests in the imperial economy has also been discussed. The forest policy of the post-colonial period was defined and influenced by the powerful and complex machinery of the political matrix. Plantations, silvicultural practices, protection and regeneration of forests and livelihood practices have also been studied. The book also considers public debates on ecology and changes in conservation practices after the 1980 Act.

Given this backdrop and in the overall context of afforestation, the achievements of Jadav Payeng cannot be ignored. The fact that a group of elders gave him 20 bamboo seedlings to plant and he planted them and watered them every day (devising various methods of irrigation) sounds almost like fiction. Over time his hard work paid off rich dividends. A forest grew up. Animals came back, but with them came threats no less. However, Jadav inventively coped and continued to protect the forest. The relative absence of the community throughout Jadav's endeavors (in the book) is somewhat startling. Through real life examples, the book reiterates the connections between man and nature. And herein lies the importance of this book by Sophia Gholz that refers to Jadav throughout as 'the boy' or 'the man'- this indeed has a distancing effect.

The depictions of Jadav as a child are generic, whereas those of him as an adult are reasonably accurate to photographs. Moreover, facts indicate that Jadav was 16 when he started planting the trees, but the book shows him as a much younger child. The illustrations overall are detailed and engaging, with beautiful imagery of the islands and the forest. Sophia Gholz is an award-winning children's book author, magic seeker and avid reader. Sophia enjoys writing fiction with humour and heart. When writing nonfiction, she pulls on her love of science and her strong family background in ecology. Bug on the Rug is another book of Sophia. The two engage in a hysterical, rhyming battle of wits and strength until Slug asks the necessary questions and helps them find common ground.

In my opinion, rhyming is an important developmental reading skill. It teaches phonics (decodable text) and helps young readers infer content. This is a fun story to build those skills--and is an epic read aloud. Similarly Jack Horner, Dinosaur Hunter is also a fantastic book for children. When Jack Horner was a child, nothing fascinated him more than fossils- Dinosaur fossils to be exact. He hunted for them at every chance that he got and dreamed of being a great paleontologist. But school was hard, reading was even harder, and he struggled to succeed like the other children in his classes. Jack persevered, finding his own way to success, until he became one of the world's most famous paleontologist, immortalized in Hollywood movies and known as Jack Horner: Dinosaur Hunter.

As a child Sophia was a passionate reader and artist. When not reading or drawing, she was found at the farm, riding horses. She grew up in Florida, went to art school in California and met her husband in Manhattan. The idea of Sophia's books are for young people to develop a firm ecological mindset and use it to overcome today's environmental challenges with a proactive attitude and a strong commitment.

Well it is said that time spent among trees is never time wasted. We recall Shelley's beautiful lines when we think of the green revolution inspired by Jadav Payeng: 'Away, away, from men and towns/ to the wild wood and the downs,-/to the silent wildness, / Where the soul need not repress its music."

By Dr. Ratan Bhattacharjee

The reviewer is a senior academician and trilingual writer and he may be reached at profratanbhattacharjee@gmail.com

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