Mike Lucas (text) and Daron Parton (illustrator), Let’s Build a Backyard, Hachette Australia, April 2022, 24 pp., RRP $24.99 (hbk), ISBN 9780734421289
We’ll dig, we’ll build, we’ll plant, we’ll sow.
We’ll make a place to play and grow.
You and me: one two three…GO!
Let’s Build a Backyard is the latest picture book by engineer turned author Mike Lucas. Lucas, whose first book, Olivia’s Voice, was a Notable in the 2018 CBCA Book of the Year Awards, uses simple rhymes to illustrate the steps to creating a garden – dig, plant, water, protect, enjoy! In this step-by-step rhyming instructional, kids will have fun learning to build and grow their own backyard.
When reading Let’s Build a Backyard together, kids and their adults will learn more about what they, too, can achieve in the garden with a bit of patience and hard work. Each double-page spread unpacks plenty of gardening advice as we watch the characters prepare the soil, plant seeds and create homes for wildlife. Each project described provides an excellent jumping-off point for kids to ask more questions and find new projects to complete in their own backyards. It also provides an entry into the conversation many parents will have with their children about sustainability and self-reliance: why should people learn to grow their own vegetables? Why is it beneficial to the ecosystem for people with backyards to provide homes for wildlife? Why should bees be encouraged to make homes in our backyards?
Let’s Build a Backyard serves as a companion piece to author Mike Lucas’ previous title, Let’s Build a House, where he used his knowledge of the building industry to describe the steps involved in constructing a home. Both titles were illustrated by Daron Parton, award-winning New Zealand illustrator and illustration tutor at Auckland University of Technology.
The ideas reflected in the story could be built upon to help give any child a sense of achievement when they complete a project from start to finish. Let’s Build a Backyard would make a fantastic addition to any home library as well as in outdoor classrooms to encourage kids to get their hands dirty and build something that matters.
Reviewed by Geni Kuckhahn
