The story in this wordless picture book begins on the opening end papers, showing a forest drawn in ink pen, with one tree highlighted in paper bag brown. That judicious use of color continues as the tree becomes a log sent to a mill, transformed into a giant roll of paper, and then manufactured into a paper bag, easily tracked through the process by its singular hue among the greys, blacks, and cream of each scene. A touch of red is added as the plot progresses, in the form of a heart drawn on the outside of the bag-now a boy's lunch bag, and later a convenient container for whatever he needs to carry as he grows up, attends college, falls in love, and becomes a parent. Later his biracial (brown-skinned/white) child adds even more red hearts to that same long-lived bag. Finally, having traveled full circle, the bag holds a tree seedling that the family plants in the woods. An author's note relates how issues of conservation and recycling inspired him to re-use a paper bag for school lunch for three years, before willing it to a younger friend at graduation. Suspending disbelief about the longevity of the book's bag is worth the effort, in order to savor the clever design, intricate illustrations, and a gentle call for conservation. (Ages 3-7)