Book reviews

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, [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

I use these ‘Spot 50’ books all the time when working outside with children (other titles include wildflowers, trees and insects).  They are easy to navigate as a simple field guide, and contain just the right level and amount of information about each species.  Each species has its own page, [...]

Henricus Peters writes: I was fortunate, back in the late 1990s, to visit the East African savannah and witness some of the most amazing wildlife there. With wildlife comes life and death – and with the life comes ‘poo’… but, now that I come to think of it, I was [...]

This is how a review of Thor Hanson's book in the Economist begins: "BEES are wasps that went vegetarian. This was a brilliant evolutionary move: they now outnumber wasps by around three to one.  Instead of hunting creatures that would rather not be eaten, they turned to living things that [...]

Children love minibeasts – and so do I! As an envi-ronmental education teacher, I spend a lot of time rummaging around in leaf litter, lifting up old logs and sweeping about in ponds. While pond dipping is not cov-ered in this book, there are loads of ideas for attracting, catching [...]

This is a brilliant big book to read to children outside.  A lucky charity shop find has become a book that I’ve used in various places for many different themes.  These have included reading it in a reception classroom followed by independent work making nest collages for Spike to sit [...]