Review by Frank Plowright

We met Bao in Cross My Heart and Never Lie, friend of Linnéa and Tuva. All three enjoyed hanging around in the forest outside their Norwegian home town, so it’s devastating news the school board intend to chop down some of the trees to expand parking spaces. Bao takes this extremely personally as her proposal was to encourage fewer cars coming to the school.

Cross My Heart and Never Lie was based around Tuva’s diary, so Nora Dåsnes mixed written entries with comics and illustrations. As it’s Bao’s story without a journal there’s a greater commitment to comics in Save Our Forest, although her hand written climate report is included. While the entire book is about activism, that’s the only educational information dump, and clever writing incorporates other issues smoothly, not least the disagreements between Bao and her mother. It’s well conveyed how Bao’s anger stems from dealing with adults unwilling to face the reality, and Dåsnes supplies a further general truth about direct actions speaking louder than words when people are unwilling to listen to heartfelt concerns.

As the entire book is about saving the forest, a really thoughtful touch is the front endpapers being illustrations of berries, cones and nuts from local trees, and the back endpapers showing the different types of tree leaves found in a forest.

Simple but expressive art moves the story along at an increasingly rapid pace, and although an escalating situation propels the plot, there’s room to look at other aspects of the lives of the now thirteen year old cast. Dåsnes also continues charming elements introduced in Cross My Heart and Never Lie, such as playlists provided by Tuva’s father, and ends with a few pages providing a practical guide as to how young people can make their voice count before being able to vote. All in all, immensely satisfying.