Canopy Meg’s Treetop Triumphs
“We are part of our ecosystem, not outside it.”
-Dr. Margaret D. Lowman
|Review by Dr. Jerry Flack |
Heather Lang’s picture book biography of scientist and preservationist, Dr. Margaret Lowman, explores her life-long love affair with leaves and ultimately the world’s rainforests. Even as a child growing up in New York State, Lowman gathered and studied leaves. She collected, pressed, examined, and drew leaves. She built tree forts to gain greater access to the higher reaches of tree leaves. During her college years, she faced gender discrimination, especially by men who believed that women lacked the strength and courage for the dangerous field work that arbor exploration required. Her advanced study at Sydney University (Australia) led her to the even more dangerous explorations of tropical rainforests.
Why study rainforest canopies? The canopy of a rainforest tree is like a giant umbrella that provides a hot and humid environment that is home to a vast array of growing plants which, in turn, support a great variety of animal species. Prior to Dr. Lowman’s research, rainforest scientists examined the all-important forest canopies using binoculars, or by more destructive means, such as cutting down trees or using poisonous chemical sprays and studying the fallen detritus.
Rainforest tree canopies range from 60 to 150 feet above the forest floors. Margaret Lowman needed to become an inventor, and to take great risks, to become the first scientist to work directly inside rainforest canopies. “Canopy Meg,” as Dr. Lowman came to be known, literally invented her way up into rainforest canopies. She created harnesses from seat-belt straps. She welded metal rods into slingshots that propelled great lengths of rope tied on the end to a lead weight. After many failed trials, Margaret finally anchored ropes around branches that allowed her to make hazardous ascents into the lush rainforest canopies that contain what scientists today believe are home to half of the plant and animal species on land. All manner of leaves feed the myriad insects, splendidly colorful parrots, sleeping koalas, and green slithering pythons that live in canopies.
Sitting astride tree limbs, Margaret Lowman measured and sketched leaves, taking particular note of how the great variety sustained the lives of innumerable herbivores. She discovered that many leaves and flowers contain plant chemicals that are medicinal. One such discovery is the rosy periwinkle found in the canopies of rainforests of Madagascar that may provide a cure for leukemia.
For the better part of a decade, “Canopy Meg” worked chiefly alone. Because of even greater threats, especially poisonous snakes, she could not work at night. Then, in 1988, she worked with her friend, Peter O’Reilly, as they designed and constructed canopy walkways that created a safe invention of ladders making up suspension bridges that allowed her to work securely at night. The ladder walkways connected trees that stretched to heights of 110 feet above the rainforest floor.
The canopy walkways also served another purpose. Many people failed to recognize the exceptional value of rainforest canopies. The canopies, which take millions of years to form, were disappearing forever from the world at alarming rates. Dr. Lowman’s walkways allowed her to conduct adventure tours that introduced Australian people to the incredible splendors of rainforests. At the same time, she began to publish prize-winning articles and books about the marvels of the world’s tropical rainforests and the crucial need to halt their deforestation. Rainforests are absolutely critical to clean, life-sustaining oxygen.
“Canopy Meg” has traveled the world convincing people that rainforest trees produce crops and plants to be harvested for sustainable incomes. Not the least of these foods include chocolate, pineapples, and cinnamon. Rainforest walkways facilitate profitable ecotourism in such far-flung locations as Western Samoa. Life-saving medicines can be harvested in protected rainforests around the globe.
The design of The Leaf Detective is exceptional. Heather Lang’s narrative is well suited as a read-aloud or for silent reading. The account of Dr. Margaret D. Lowman’s childhood dreams, youthful aspirations, and pioneering research is thoroughly engrossing. Jana Christy’s digital illustrations superbly capture the sumptuous natural beauty of tropical rainforests. This is a very green book in more ways than one.
Many pages use bonus factual material about rainforests super-imposed on green leaf icons. One prime example: It can take 60 to 100 million years for a rainforest to form. Many of our rainforests existed when dinosaurs roamed the earth. Each leaf enhances the narrative and is an enticing invitation for gifted children to engage in more in-depth research about rainforests.
Extensive back matter is central to the enjoyment and benefit of the biography. Two full pages are devoted to a first meeting of the author, Heather Lang, and Dr. Margaret Lowman, the “Leaf Detective,” as they explored the canopy of an Amazon rainforest in Peru. Presented vertically, a double-page drawing of a giant Kapok tree labels the essential elements and inhabitants of “Rainforest Magic,” from the forest floor to its very top (175 feet). A bibliography, videos, websites, source notes, plus acknowledgements, round out this valuable book.
The Leaf Detective is a perfect picture book biography and its excellence confirms the virtues of this genre for all ages. Young readers meet a courageous scientist, learn about her exceptional career, and will come to appreciate the absolutely essential need for the preservation of the earth’s rainforests. More mature readers first meet Dr. Margaret Lowman in a most inviting manner and can then venture into advanced scholarly research about the subject herself—especially on her own website! They also learn about rainforest history and environments, conservation, and preservation of the earth’s endangered natural resources. Dr. Lowman’s books, such as Life in the Treetops (Yale University, 1999), allow mature students to utilize primary sources.
Home Activities
Author Heather Lang references several rainforest locations around the world where “Canopy Meg” has worked. These include Queensland, Australia; Western Samoa; and Cameroon. Invite children to explore home or library atlases to locate these places and then draw a map of the wide world of Dr. Lowman’s ground-breaking research and environmental conservation efforts.
Dr. Margaret Lowman has been favorably compared to the title character in Dr. Seuss’ The Lorax (Theodor Seuss Geisel’s personal favorite book). Encourage children to read The Lorax (Random House, 1971) and then create a Venn diagram comparing and contrasting the two tree advocators.
Inspired by the facts shared in The Leaf Detective, write a verse tribute to Margaret Lowman. If anyone in the world today deserves an ode, it is surely this great scientist.
“Women should not climb trees,” people told Margaret Lowman, yet she exhibited uncommon inventiveness, tenacity, and courage in becoming the first scientist, male or female, to ascend rainforest tree limbs and branches 100 feet or more above the forest floor to best study their canopies firsthand. Inspire children to reread her brave accomplishments and write an interior monologue or a journal entry that recreates her valor. Children should employ many action verbs and believable self-talk in their passages.
Lang, Heather. The Leaf Detective: How Margaret Lowman Uncovered Secrets in the Rainforest. Illus. by Jana Christy. New York: Calkins Creek, 2021.
