The Mangrove Tree

Review
By Kirkus Reviews

Dr. Gordon Santo had a brainstorm: Why not plant mangrove trees in the waters off Hargigo? The leaves would feed the town’s hungry herds of sheep and goats and provide wood for fuel; the trees’ root system would attract fish; and the trees themselves would [convert] carbon dioxide to oxygen. Roth’s artwork is a treat, cut-paper and fabric collages of intense, shimmering color on a ground of paper that is electric with thick veins of fiber. Roth and Trumbore’s cumulative verse goes about its merry way on the left page. . .while a narrative on the right takes readers on Santo’s journey. Hitting home hard is the project’s simple practicality: no high-tech, no great infusions of capital or energy—in a word, motivating, in the best possible way.