Posted on: 28/04/2020
The last month has been different in more ways than one as we have all had to adjust rather suddenly to a new normal; a normal where our work patterns have changed, our socialising patterns have changed, and our life outdoors has probably changed. For many of us, living in cities has always afforded us great parks to roam through and lounge within and these have been appreciated all the more so as our time for breathing in fresh air has been carefully rationed out. For many, who are lucky enough, this past month has given us more time to spend in gardens and whilst the weather has been kind, alongside with parks and footpaths we are even more thankful for these spaces as the bird song has grown louder and the flowers have noticeably bloomed. Without the aeroplanes in sky and so many cars on the road, the air certainly seems fresher and the colours seem brighter and some of us last month will have noticed the blossom of spring and the green shoots through the soil. To many an amused eye, there have even been pictures of goat, sheep and deer reclaiming towns and villages and this only serves to demonstrate how strong nature is and how the planet really does belong to the wild.
Many of us have actually become a little wilder ourselves, with less of a routine and fewer people to present ourselves in front of, we’ve had a chance to see how life might be with a slower pace and with less effort to look a certain way!
And so this month our books are all linked by the outside world and our relationship with the wild outdoors, whether this be the patch of grass by the kerbside or the woods where you live, we are looking (and listening) to nature and celebrating its beauty.
We were completely captivated by this dystopian adventure novel from the first page and even though we felt it initially to be a little close to the bone, -‘The beauty of the disease was no animal or bird ever got sick, only humans did,’ it didn’t actually feel scary - just timely.
Juniper and Bear are siblings who escape from their city of grey to a wilderness of green in an attempt to reconnect with their family, and the wild itself. Knowing they are immune to the disease that the city’s walls and wardens have shut out, they go on the run. But as the city had long forbidden all trees, flowers and animals, learning to survive outside takes courage and stamina for the children under the sinister gaze of the drones.
We were gripped by the grittiness and the compelling characters in this debut novel that is full of heart and hope. Like so many of the books we adore, it helps to ask the bigger questions and we can see this being used for rich and meaningful discussions in the classroom around the need to preserve our planet – and our humanity.
We adore Jeannie Baker’s work – her mixed media intricate collages are instantly recognisable and make for the most awe-inspiring books. Our fascination with birds has intensified over the last month as we’ve taken to looking to the skies as respite to looking at our screens so much and the beautiful shapes and sounds of these creatures make perfect subjects for artwork. In this book Jeannie Baker tells the true-life narrative of the migration of the Black-tailed Godwit, told initially through the eyes of a boy in a wheelchair and the wonder of the journey these birds make each year as they travel full circle. It’s a wonder of a book and again we were awe-struck by the stories that are in front of our very eyes in nature that just need to be told.
This is the latest in the ‘The Big Book of…’ series that has revolutionised bookshelves and book corners with their size and glorious technicolour over the last couple of years. We adored The Big Book of Blue and were weirdly fascinated by The Big Book of Bugs and the Big Book of Blooms couldn’t have come at a better time, as we all look to the outside for inspiration.
The brilliance in this series is the seemingly simple way that Zommer breaks down the complexities of vocabulary and concepts. The pages are a visual treat and the illustrations (and subject itself) are not just educational but small works of art woven together. The wordplay of the subheadings are also fabulous, often alliterative or metaphorical e.g. ‘Crowning Glory’ ‘Slowcoach’ which adds to the literary quality of the text and takes it beyond a simple information text. Another one for our coffee table to dip into time and time again.
And on this theme we also returned to an old favourite this month, The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgeson Burnett, which was originally published in 1909, but continues to be printed, reformatted and reillustrated all the time as it is so powerful in its theme of when nature is given a helping hand, it thrives and works with humanity, not against it.
The Secret Garden is actually referenced in Where the World Turns Wild as well which jolted us to return to it but like many plants, it’s a perennial favourite and in a world of so much unpredictableness right now, we took comfort in returning to the safety of the known – and the happy ending.
Posted in: Literature Review
