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DETECTIVE ou
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HOW MARGARET LOWMAN

UNCOVERED SECRETS IN THE RAINFOREST
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Heather Lang
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Illustrated by Jana Christy

CALKINS CREEK
AN IMPRINT OF BOYDS MILLS & KANE
New York
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M eg loved how leaves After twenty years of thinking about them,

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burst into the world reading about them,

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and unfurled. studying them,
She admired their different shapes, Meg wanted to understand them,
colors, and textures. to discover their stories.

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How did they survive?
How long did they live?

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Why did they die?

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But looking at leaves from the ground
gets a rainforest scientist only so far.

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Meg knew she had to find a way

ok to go to the leaves—
to the treetops.
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“We had already been to the moon and back and nobody
had been to the top of a tree.”
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Meg Lowman had been a leaf detective

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ever since she was a young girl,

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in the 1950s “I was literally the only one in my
in Elmira, New York.
town like myself.”

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Shy and studious,
Meg wrapped herself in nature,
Meg rarely spoke in school.

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like a soft blanket.
“It pained me if I was ever called upon in class.”

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Instead,

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she found comfort and friendship
and quiet excitement

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in plants.

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She built tree forts and
collected twigs, leaves,

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and wildflowers
to study and identify,
to press and label: ok
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swamp thistle,
devil’s paintbrush,
forget-me-nots.
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