Sarah Speedie (text) and Margeaux Davis (illustrator), Our Beautiful World, New Frontier, April 2025, 32 pp., RRP $26.99 (hbk), ISBN 9781923145573
Our Beautiful World is a tender journey crafted for children aged 3 to 6, celebrating the beauty of earth.
Text by Sarah Speedie invites little readers to travel from the vibrant red rocks of Australia to the gold dunes of Morocco. Margeaux Davis, drawing on her background in environmental education lends authenticity to every page with soft, textured watercolours capturing each location’s spirit.
Perfect for classrooms it has a lot of sensory appeal and educational potential. It’s a visual feast that sparks curiosity—perfect for reading aloud. Teachers and educators can use it to introduce geography, colours, diverse cultures, and nature.
The sing-song text also encourages language play and memory. Some possible classroom or home activities include pointing out each country and colour on a globe or world map, matching objects in your environment to the book’s colour themes, and more from a set of teachers’ notes. Our beautiful world is a tribute to the natural wonders of the world and is a gem for young readers to inspire wonder, appreciation, and curiosity about the world around them.
Orange light fills the South African sky.
I dive for the ball and then kick it up high.
A rainbow of colours under the same sun.
Our beautiful world…
shared by everyone.
Reviewed by Shelley Stephens
