Alberta has the summer school holidays sorted. She's going to spend every moment she can with her friends on the beach, or in the surf boogie boarding. A run in with a local bully dumps her plans... hard! Now with a broken arm in plaster and in a sling for the next six weeks, she's at a loss what to do.

Hanging out with her extremely over the top, argumentative and chaos causing eight year old sister Clementine is definitely out. And come to think of it, her friends have been acting a little weird lately. Will six weeks of summer be complete boredom?

Another friend who has just returned from visiting family in Japan, notices her broken arm and suggests helping him with a project. Alberta is unsure at first at Mikki's suggestion, but the subject and process is fascinating. Mikki is a budding doco film maker, and his specialist subject is trees. National forest edges their small seaside town, and Alberta has never thought much about it as she uses the bike trails to get from A to B.

At first, Alberta wonders if this is all a bit "woo woo" for her, but as she immerses herself in the books she has borrowed from Mikki, she can understand her friend's excitement. She quickly becomes the face of their new YouTube channel as Mikki films and uses his skills to edit short films for to watch and learn about trees, forests and nature.

When they learn that the stand of pine trees they have been studying and filming within the national park is marked for removal, they leap into action to do everything to save them.

The forest might be calming and a focus for her holidays, but life at home is anything but. Alberta finally learns what her friends have been acting so strange about. It's not Alberta they are cross with but her parents. Both are under the eyes of the small town and filling mouths with juicy gossip.

For a holiday that was looking to be a long boring one, Alberta is suddenly famous online for 'listening' to trees, trying to help her parents and pulling her community together. Phew!


This might look just another eco story for kids, but it has so many more layers. There is a fracturing family and the stress release that causes its own problems. The main character's mum is an author of a hugely successful manners book which again causes more friction than help. Snippets of the book are included throughout this story in the form of 'Tammy's tips' - manners advice. These tips are balanced with opposite behaviour, especially by younger sister Clementine, throughout the story.

I'm not sure whether the technology used to listen and 'play' the trees will ever be possible, but the insight and information about trees is riveting and worth studying further. Hoping readers will be inspired by this story and help save their own trees!

Author - Marion Roberts

Age - 9+middle-grade-age-7-121 Jennie1,113

A wonderful, thoughtful story that intertwines several key themes to present primary aged readers with an enjoyable, intriguing, inspirational and original story.

The ‘Me’ is 11 year old Alberta Bracken – the teller of this tale. Mikki, of Japanese heritage, loves making films and has just lost his grandfather (a tree scientist), and the ‘out of tune tree’ is a very old pine tree in a grove hidden within a national forest. A grove that is scheduled to be removed as an evasive species.

Alberta teams up with Mikki, a holiday visitor who loves to film nature and is using the local forest as a way to come to terms with his grief. Mikki’s knowledge of trees and how the communicate with them is shared with Alberta as she learns to appreciate the natural world around her and is quickly caught up in what Mikki calls ‘forest bathing’ which involves intentionally walking through a natural environment and soaking up the good vibrations for personal well-being. They start a YouTube channel (set up by an adult) – Mikki and Me and the Memory Tree – with Alberta sharing her new found tree knowledge and Mikki filming and editing the footage and their online presence and following starts to grow. When they come across the grove of pines the oldest tree takes on a spiritual resonance for the boy to say farewell to his grandfather and provides the stimulus to tune in to their plight and devise a plan to save the grove – the Twilight Forest Concert – with recorded tree singing.

I loved this book that ultimately celebrates trees, and nature more broadly. It models mindfulness effectively and would make an interesting class read aloud to stimulate discussion and investigation and to springboard some environmental action.

NOTABLE BOOK: 2023 CBCA Book of the Year, Younger Readersactivism cbca environment ...more Kathleen Dixon3,992 64

This is a very good novel for the middle fiction age group, though I found it a little slow at the beginning. I also disd the characterisation of the mother. However, I've decided not to let that make me remove a star from my review.

The main theme is environmental, but it gets there through a number of issues in the small town in which Alberta (known to her friends and family as Berts) lives. There's the mother being extremely stupid with regards to her blog (or is it Twitter?) on etiquette by posting a supposedly disguised picture of somebody eating badly but everybody knows who it is. There's the fact that everybody in town knows before Berts does that her father has had an affair. There's the disaster the town had with sewage, which drove away the tourists. There's the local bully. There's something else - Berts has no idea what - that's causing her friends to act strangely around her. BUT, Mikki isn't interested in any of that, and he asks Berts if she wants to get involved with his documentary filming.

Nice interactions with the other adults in the story. Good writing on how children handle parents behaving badly. Excellent work on the Being with Trees.2024-patient-bookcase-dwellers australia environment ...more Judy Wollin564 2

Alberta’s mother is an expert on manners and doesn’t stop reminding her how things should be done. Sylvie, her best friend, is avoiding her, Dad and Mum have split up, a local bully breaks her arm, and her summer holiday is imploding. What should she do since she can’t go swimming or surfing?
Mikki lives around the corner and stays at his family’s holiday house. He invites Alberts to visit the forest and listen to trees talk. Bored with nothing better to do and intrigued by talking trees, Alberta and Mikki find surprises in the forest. What happens to Alberta’s Summer?
I enjoyed the complex plot, which included plant intelligence and the complex issues around family dynamics when there’s a problem no one will talk about.
Recommend for readers ten years and older. Kim Hart131

A truly heartwarming story set in Australia that explores friendships, standing up for what you believe in, and dealing with parents who have their own set of problems.
When Mikki and Alberta decide to start a YouTube channel to share with people how to forest bathe, they never imagine how much they will be able to eventually influence the powers that be. They learn an old pine forest is about to be logged because it’s in a National Park, and they want to tell the world how important trees are to humans, even if they aren’t native.
Alberta is also dealing with her parent’s separation and a mother who is shoplifting from local stores.
I love stories set in Australia, and this is such a beautiful book with lessons for every reader.
Highly recommend for ages 8+ Mel276 3

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