Amanda Wood & Mike Jolley (text), Owen Davey (illus.) Natural World: a visual compendium of wonders of nature, Wide Eyed/Murdoch Books, July 2016, 112pp., $35.00, ISBN: 9781847807519
Are you curious about the natural world? Do love beautiful books? Do you believe the age of reference books lying around on tables, shelves, chairs and floors is not over? Would you like your child to be able to find their way around a reference book as easily as they might negotiate the latest online learning resource? Then this is the book for you!
This is simply a superb book, lucidly written, logically organized, full of astounding information presented systematically and gorgeously on creamy art paper with a full range of matt colours, with each animal depicted in a stylized but exactly detailed manner, including, for instance, the loriciferan—a newly discovered micro-creature of the ocean floor, which lives by attaching itself to a single grain of sand.
You will discover that less than 5% of the species of animals on earth are vertebrates. One out of four of all living animal species is a beetle. The information on food chains, extraordinary hunters, tropical animals, mating rituals, nests, types of eggs, camouflage and nearly fifty other topics, is all of an introductory nature, and that is its attraction. Each double page spread offers many paths for a young researcher to follow into other books, into the world outside their door, or onto the internet.
This book might go a long way to reviving the profession of science, which is apparently one of our endangered professions, for it offers adults, teachers and children a way in to discovering knowledge, building upon knowledge, and appreciating the coherence and complexity of the natural world. This book is a must for school libraries, and would be a joy for a child with in interest in the natural world to find in a Christmas package. Recommended for the curious of all ages, starting at five years old.
Reviewed by Kevin Brophy
