There were a stack of these on sale for a song so I picked one up. I love the cover design and illustration.

Amazon Editorial Review

Simply written, but powerful and unforgettable, The Man Who Planted Trees is a parable for modern times. In the foothills of the French Alps the narrator meets a shepherd who has quietly taken on the task of planting one hundred acorns a day in an effort to reforest his desolate region. Not even two world wars can keep the shepherd from continuing his solitary work. Gradually, this gentle, persistent man's work comes to fruition: the region is transformed; life and hope return; the world is renewed.

This was a lovely little book to discover today among books I had gathered a good while ago. It was just what I needed to read after traveling back to a landscape I remembered from long ago. There was ugliness and destruction there, signs of the work of dynamite on an old building that was recently demolished but not cleared away. So this hopeful read, a parable of forests growing from seeds planted in a desolate landscape was just the thing to read. I'm glad this book was here when I needed it. From Wikipedia:

A true story?

Wikisource has original text related to this article:
Giono letter to Digne official
The story itself is so touching that many readers have believed that Elzéard Bouffier was a genuine historical figure and that the narrator of the story was a young Jean Giono himself, and that the tale is part autobiographical. Certainly, Giono lived during this time. While he was alive, Giono enjoyed allowing people to believe that the story was real, and considered it as a tribute to his skill. His daughter, Aline Giono, described it as "a family story for a long time". However, Giono himself explained in a 1957 letter to an official of the city of Digne:
Sorry to disappoint you, but Elzéard Bouffier is a fictional person. The goal was to make trees likeable, or more specifically, make planting trees likeable.
In the letter, he describes how the book was translated in a multitude of languages, distributed freely, and therefore was a success. He adds that, although "it does not bring me a cent", it is one of the texts of which he is most proud.
[edit]Real-life counterparts

Real-life people in other countries have produced similar effects. Abdul Karim in India created a forest out of "nothing" over a period of 19 years, using the same method as Bouffier.[1] An organization called Trees for the Future has assisted more than 170,000 families, in 6,800 villages of Asia, Africa, and the Americas, to plant over 35 million trees.[2] Wangari Maathai, 2004 Nobel Peace Prize recipient, founded the Green Belt Movement which planted over 30 million trees to restore the Kenyan environment.[3] In China, Shanghai Roots & Shoots, a division of the Jane Goodall Institute launched The Million Tree Project in Kulun Qi, Inner Mongolia to plant one million trees to stop desertification and alleviate global warming.[4][5]
The character of Bouffier has some similarity to the legendary early 19th century American tree planter Johnny Appleseed. Another tireless promoter of tree-planting is Marthinus Daneel, Ph.D., Professor of African studies at Boston University and founder of ZIRRCON (Zimbabwean Institute of Religious Research and Ecological Conservation). Daneel has worked with churches for years planting millions of trees in Zimbabwe. Due to instability in Zimbabwe in recent years, such efforts have been significantly curtailed. Similarly, concerned about global warming, Bhausaheb Thorat planted 45 million seeds after being inspired by the book. For this he started the Dandakaranya Abhiyaan in June 2006 at Sangamner, Maharashtra, India (Sangamner is on Pune-Nasik highway). UNEP has taken notice of this campaign in its A Billion Tree Campaign in which almost 45 million seedlings have been planted.[6] Harmony magazine Tina Anil Ambani has an article on Bhausaheb Thorat's global warming awareness efforts and his Dandakaranya Abhiyaan in the December 2008 edition.[7]

I found the neighborhood happy today. I stopped into a cheerful place in East Point's Main Street district to leave this inspiring little book behind. Have a book and a biscuit at Thumbs Up.

I know that this book is no longer where I left it. I hope that it has found a reader or two or three in the past five years it has wandered in the wild.