Shelf Awareness: enlightenment for readers

When Trees Testify:
Science, Wisdom, History, and
America's Black Botanical Legacy
by Beronda L. Montgomery

Fans of reflective nature-inspired memoirs, à la Braiding Sweetgrass and Upstream, will be eager to pick up When Trees Testify. Beronda Montgomery draws on history, plant biology, and her experience as a Black botanist to weave together a cultural, social, and personal narrative of trees across Black history in America. Retha Powers, v-p, executive editor at Holt, calls the book "ambitious and compelling," with the intertwined narrative so appealing to the sales team that Holt moved up the pub date to get it into readers' hands as early as possible. When Trees Testify is a timely, necessary, and essential invitation to consider the wisdom that trees hold of the spirit and strength of Black Americans throughout history. --Kerry McHugh

(Holt, $27.99 hardcover, 9781250335166, January 20, 2026)