Book reviews

Is it Silent Spring, perhaps?  Or Walden?  The Natural History of Selbourne, maybe, or A Sand County Almanac?  Then there’s Last Child in the Woods, Small is Beautiful or The Web of Life.  The Prelude, perchance, The Deserted Village, or The Mores?  Or Emile.  Is it Bedford 2046, Marx’s Ecology, The Child in the City, or Streetwise?  Or Deep Ecology: living as if nature mattered, Ariadne’s Thread, Environmentalism, or After Sustainability? Is it The Skeptical Environmentalist, or Capitalism as if the World Matters.  Or Collapse: how societies choose…

The secret life of  Flies is a very enjoyable read. McAlister shows her love of this group of insects and, through her chatty style, opens up a secret world to us.  Her factual information is punctuated with many anecdotes, often amusing, on the behaviour and role of detrivores and cophrages, necrophages and vegetarians, fungivores, predators…

Facing up to Climate Reality: honesty, disaster and hope is the sequel to an earlier 2014 collection of essays: The Post-Growth Project. The book’s task as set out in a Foreword is to “confront the brutal reality of the long-term climate damage that [economic] growth has already made inevitable.  Honesty about this situation is something…

Geographical regularly publishes reviews of significant books.  Here are links to some of its recent output: Jared Diamond’s UPHEAVAL: How Nations Cope with Crisis and Change Edward O Wilson’s GENESIS: On the Deep Origin of Societies James Lovelock’s Novacene: the coming age of hyperintelligence Lewis Dartnell’s Origins: how the Earth made us Andrew Blum’s Weather Machine: how we see into the…

Resurrection Trust is a book of “funny, dark, mad, bad, upbeat, downbeat and fantastical short stories about living sustainably”. They arose from the University of Southampton’s Green Stories writing competition.   The editor, Amanda Saint, says that the stories “showcase a myriad of different ideas about how humans can live more harmoniously with nature, and each…

Dinosaurs hold a particular fascination among young children.    This beautifully illustrated book will swiftly become a favourite for reading aloud to groups of early years pupils, with just a few words in large print on each page, which are dominated by the large, simple, colourful images of dinosaurs. The book tells the story of a…

Here’s an initial selection of books with environmental themes suitable for primary education that has been put together by the Centre for Literacy in Primary Education CLPE. The Storm Whale by Benji Davies Simon and Schuster 9781471115684 Noi lives a self-sufficient life with his dad by the sea in an isolated home reminiscent of the fishing huts at…

Aimed at 8-12 year olds, this is a well-organised book that offers a ‘head start’ to anyone interested in finding out more about birds.  The first half of the book gives essential information and useful tips to young birders, including how to recognise different bird species (looking at size, shape, colour, behaviour, calls etc.); the…

This is an extract from the reading list of the UN SDG Bookclub: Razia’s Ray of Hope Razia and her family live in a small village in Afghanistan where a new school for girl’s is being built. Razia is very excited about the chance to learn but it will take all her courage and confidence…

This is a review by Gen Upton of I Am Turtle.   The performance of I Am Turtle by the Makeshift Ensemble on 30th May 2019 was luckily blessed by clement weather.  Visually it was exciting!  All of the props and set were imaginatively put together from reclaimed materials as befits a children’s play with an environmental…

My favourite book to use with children!  The colourful illustrations appeal to young children, but there is sufficient information about each of the 20 featured bird species to engage older ones as well.  Each bird has a ‘Guess Who’ page, which gives clues to help identify the species—for example: ‘This bird likes being around gardeners.…

This beautifully illustrated story book gives an insight into the life and habits of one of the UK’s 18 bat species — the Brown long-eared bat.  It begins with a foreword by Chris Packham, who explains in simple terms the importance of bats and the threats that they face. He also mentions a very important point—that…