Wildheart: The Daring Adventures of John Muir

Wildheart: The Daring Adventures of John Muir
By Julie Bertagna
Illustrated by William Goldsmith
Yosemite Conservancy, 2019. Graphic novel biography.

Young readers are invited to share in environmentalist John Muir's wonder at the majesty of nature in this comic book biography. From his beginnings in Dunbar, Scotland as a brilliant and easily bored child to his tenure as president of California's Sierra Club - we see John Muir as a man who truly lived a life of adventure.

The very cartoony illustrations are at times welcome and vivid and at other times a little disappointing - it's hard to introduce Half Dome in Yosemite to readers without a realistic illustration of Half Dome - but certainly heighten the kid-appeal in a book filled with well-placed humor. This is the kind of educational book that is so expertly disguised that some kids may not even realize they're learning a valuable lesson about the value of our planet - but teachers and parents will find this an introduction to myriad topics.

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