If Leo were a fungus, he wouldn't be an animal—or a plant. He would live in the mountains but also in the city. He would live in lakes, in the desert, and on cheese!
Fungi are found around the globe, yet we know very little about them. Scientists even have a hard time defining what they are because they're so contradictory. In If I Were a Fungus, author and illustrator Gaia Stella presents a colorful and offbeat introduction to a most unusual life-form!
February 12, 2024
The phenomenal capabilities of fungi star in this lightly informative and humorous profile. Using the titular thought experiment as a jumping-off point, first-person text spoken by pink-skinned, red-haired young human mycophile Leo reflects on some forms that a fungus can take, including “spongy,” “fan-shaped,” and “polka-dotted.” Settling on a red-topped, rounded appearance, Leo goes on to envision life as a ’shroom, from getting around to eating to meeting others: “If I were hungry... I’d find my own way to eat at the table.” A definition of mushrooms’ fruiting body unfortunately limits its shape to “a stem with a cap on it,” and informative commentary, provided throughout by worms, butterflies, and other critters, remains largely high-level (“It surrounds its food when it eats. And it doesn’t have to chew”). In bold-hued digital and marker art, geometric shapes lend Stella’s spreads a blocky, elementary vibe that suits the kid-centric text, which playfully but profoundly concludes with its subject’s ubiquity even beyond forest ecosystems: “There’s always a fungus among us.” Back matter includes diagrams, facts, and further resources. Ages 5–9.