While I did not completely love the grainy illustrations of Big Tree by Brian Selznick, I understand the reason for them and appreciate them. And there were several that were more fleshed out, but they felt few and far between. The story is a mature environmental tale with spiritual elements that is told by two seeds from a seed pod from Mama Sycamore. It does not sound like it makes sense, but it does, even if sometimes the flow of the story felt to be not as even as I would have liked. Afterall, we must see the world through the seed’s understanding of the world around them, or really more accurately, lack thereof. The two characters are siblings, Merwin and Louise. Merwin has always cared for his sister, via their mothers orders. He is the one that tells Louise what the mountains, sky and stars look like. And he talks about the Giants. Louise is more of a dreamer (literally and figuratively), as she spent her early life in the center of the pod, with no way to see anything. She is the one that feels and eventually hears the Voice. When they are knocked off the tree, they fly off, holding onto each other and have adventures that realistically a seed wouldn’t survive, but they do. (However, the afterwards does say that Selznick did research things, so perhaps this is possible, yet, I found it to be poetic and what the author wanted, though some events could happen, such as traveling on an animal’s fur, or blowing on the wind). The journey is not, of course, easy, but the two learn of things. 
The idea of these two seeds talking about environmentalism with a spiritual aspect, along with the history of Earth, is not a new concept, but it is the unique illustrations of Selznick and the way presented that makes this a story really never read before. We learn what the Giants are (and they are not what you are probably thinking at first). The fact that we start at a time that we cannot “fully see” as we are only watching it through grainy, black and white (or more gray) images that can only be interpreted as how a “seed perceives it” is not easy. There are a lot of images, but sometimes they are just “gray” without shape (I’ve chosen images that are less grainy). The text ranges from mostly full pages to just lines. Sometimes only a few words. If you take the book “as is” which is an adventure story, the 10 and up crowd is fine. However, if you want the deeper “stuff” the usual middle grade reader is not really the audience.
Due to the physical size of the book (over 500 pages) it is not easy to hold or therefore, read. Yet, due to the fact that (probably) over half of the pages are only images it is easy to fly through. I do not think there will ever be another The Invention of Hugo Cabret for me (mostly due to how unique it was at the time), but I will continue to read Selznick as he has a charm that makes me want to read. If I am honest, this author/illustrator is not for kids, but for adults as there is an artistry to the work that is sophisticated.
