There are books that inform, and then there are books that rewire the way you see the world. Marguerite Holloway’s Take to the Trees does both—quietly, urgently, beautifully ... It’s a call to action wrapped in a love letter to the natural world. It will stay with you long after the last page—not just as a book you read, but as a path you began walking.—Open Kimono Publishing

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“Like the trees that it centers, this wonder of a book soars, oxygenates, roots, connects, and awes. It’s a paean to all things arboreal, a memoir about loss and community, and a call to engage in acts of caretaking for our trees and for each other. To do any one of these things well would have made for a good book; to do them all beautifully is a true gift.”

—Ed Yong, Pulitzer Prize–winning author of I Contain Multitudes and Immense Worlds

“Powerful and moving, Take to the Trees will resonate with anyone looking for ways to live with optimism and courage through our current era. Just as Marguerite Holloway literally climbs into trees and finds herself, so too does the book explore the connections between trees and the branches of our lives—from the visible canopy to the substantive roots.”

—Alexandra Horowitz, author of Inside of a Dog and The Year of the Puppy

“Take to the Trees invites us to contemplate pushing past our own limits up into the treetops, as well as respecting the guidance of trees. I learned much from this wise book, and can only hope that many readers follow this writer up into the highest branches, to gain an understanding of where we are planted on this earth. Holloway’s insights are urgent and necessary.”

—Sarah Ruhl, MacArthur fellow, playwright, and author of Smile

“Take to the Trees is as lyrical and energetic a book as its title would suggest. In this hybrid of participatory journalism, environmental essay, and family memoir, Marguerite Holloway moves with effortless grace among her literary genres, and in so doing teaches us not only the facts but also the poetry of the natural world. One can’t finish this wonderful book without seeing the nonhuman world with new eyes.”

—Darcy Frey, author of The Last Shot


In her powerful and affecting book, Marguerite Holloway makes a case for how caretaking trees is really caretaking ourselves, and each other.”

—Florence Williams, author of The Nature Fix

 PHOTO BY ALEX HODOR-LEE

Marguerite Holloway has written about the environment and science for publications including the New York Times, The New Yorker, Audubon, Wired and Scientific American, where she was a long-time writer and editor. She is a professor and the Director of Science and Environmental Journalism at the Graduate School of Journalism at Columbia University. She lives in New York City.

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