The true story of activist Kate Sessions who helped San Diego grow from a dry desert town into a green, leafy city known for its gorgeous parks and garden. Beautiful, colourful illustrations.

Beautiful illustrations to a lovely rendition of ecology and the importance of trees for children and adults alike. AND it's a true story!

A lovely illustrated biography of Kate Sessions, the first woman to graduate with a College Science degree, who planted San Diego's Balboa Park and transformed the desert town into a gloriously green city. Charming, interesting, and well researched, Jill McElmurry's watercolors really deliver the message of the lush greening of a bleak and dusty Cowtown.
Rose in PR

An important book about a very special women that turned a desert into a paradise. The 'Tree Lady' Katherine Olivia Sessions was not only the first woman to graduate with a science degree from the University of California but also transformed San Diego's dry lands into a lush garden of a city. She did what others thought to be impossible.

This living book will walk you through her childhood and getting her hands dirty all the way to creating what is now known as Balboa Park by 1915. An incredible story to empower young woman, environmentalists and be in general awe of what is possible. Kate transformed not only the landscape in San Diego but the possibilities for what we can achieve anywhere on the planet.

A thoroughly astounding book.

Kate Sessions did a lot of things that people, and especially women, in the 19th century didn't do. As a girl she had a passion for science, she got a degree for it in college, and most of all she loved trees. When she moved to San Diego, she demonstrated this love by creating a nursery, and filling this desert town with greenery that could survive there. A short biography in the back fleshes out some of details of this amazing woman's life. Illustrations are similar to that of Charles Wysocki's Americana paintings; stylized, colourful, and on a flat plane. The Tree Lady has positive messages about nature, women, and possibilities. People will often say "you can't do that", or "it's impossible", but this book encourages children to try.

NYPL Staff Pick
The inspiring story of Kate Sessions, a science teacher who became a tree hunter - searching far and wide for plants that would prosper in San Diego’s harsh desert climate.