She had never tried to herd cats before setting out to coordinate the work of sixteen Kansas artists for this book, but Maureen Carroll has never known the meaning of “can’t.” A lover of rocks and trees since she was a little girl climbing in the Colorado Rockies, Maureen (aka Micki) has worn many hats over the years, including linguist and cultural anthropologist, mom, public speaker, gluten-free cook, teacher, grandma, photographer, writer, and all-around Seeker of Truth. Maureen graduated from the University of Kansas and has taught classes throughout the United States and abroad.

Maureen’s book The Tree Who Walked Through Time & The Boy Whose Branches Reached the Stars introduces the reader to sixteen different species of trees that grow in Kansas, each richly illustrated by a different Kansas artist. The book is a “flip” book, with two “front” covers each leading to the middle, presenting two intertwining stories of a tree and a boy, tying the very different kinds of art together in one cohesive whole.

“I started by asking each artist to select a tree that grows in Kansas, and to show something of what distinguishes that tree from others,” Micki explains. Serendipitously, no two artists chose the same tree. A few more were added along the way, including Jack Cleveland’s fractal tree (which may grow wherever the human imagination wanders). “I wanted this book to help children learn to identify different kinds of trees, and my artists gave me more than I could have hoped for.”

Maureen loves to travel; at last count, she had visited 45 states and the District of Columbia as well as ten other countries, but she always comes home to Kansas, her husband, and their dog Angel and cat Cleopatra. 

Many hands contributed to the creation of The Tree Who Walked Through Time – A Tree Identification Story.

Find out more about the many contributors here.