Oliver: The Second-Largest Living Thing on Earth
by Josh Crute ill John Taesoo Kim
 | Why the obsession with being first? Josh Crute explores this ever-present phenomena in Oliver: The Second-Largest Living Thing on Earth. Meet Oliver, a mighty sequoia standing 268.1 feet tall. One would think that this height would be impressive. Unfortunately, it is not. There is a taller tree: Sherman, coincidentally bearing a marked resemblance to the world's largest sequoia: The General Sherman Tree located in Sequoia National Park. Oliver notes that Sherman is the recipient of constant attention. He, on the other hand, receives no notice. Disheartened but not daunted, he begins a regime to increase his stature. "Stretch(ing) limbs" and "munch(ing) on mulch" fail to produce results. Sherman is still bigger and taller. What's a second-place finisher to do? |
| The answer comes quite by accident. Oliver changes his point of view. That's when he notices an entire forest of other sequoias. None are as tall as Sherman. However, there are a lot of them. A. Lot. They make up the Sequoia National Forest and it is indeed impressive. John Taesoo Kim renders the sequoias with insightful details. Sherman has a bushy leaf beard, mossy green growth beneath his armpit branches and some impressive tattoos sprouting on his limbs. |  |
Oliver has scrawny branches for arms, ending with puffs of leaves that resemble cheerleader pom poms. Anthropomorphism is only evident among the sequoias. All other forest vegetation is depicted as silhouettes.
The final pages provide information on actual sequoias as well as some great factoids on other natural and geographic second-largest record-holders. A terrific follow-up activity would be to research other second-largest world records. There is definitely a place for all second-place finishers!
Uncorrected copy provided by publisher.
Pub date: September 11, 2018 Publisher: Page Street Kids ISBN: 978-1624145773
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