Wild Child: A Journey Through Nature - A Review

 

 

Wild Child: A Journey Through Nature


Written by Dara McAnulty

Illustrated by Barry Falls

Published by Macmillan, 2021

 

My January recommendation is Wild Child by the naturalist Dara McAnulty, winner of the 2020 Wainwright Prize for his memoir Diary of a Young Naturalist. McAnulty takes you by the hand and leads you along a glorious, brimming nature path from garden to woods and onto uplands and down rivers in this picture-book-sized guide poem, sharing his love and passion for all that is wild on the journey. Further brought to life by the illustrator Barry Falls’ vibrant fonts and double-page illustrations of an alive-and-kicking world, featuring stunning depictions of birds and bugs, this book is pitched perfectly for a primary school audience primed by the success of a clear ancestor to the book, The Lost Words.

 

The book is divided into five sections: Windows To See The World Through, The Garden, The Woods, Going Upland and The River. In each section, McAnulty paints word pictures about each habitat and shares interesting facts about the native birds, animals and plants you will find there - including wrens, blackbirds, butterflies, tadpoles, bluebells, bees, hen harriers, otters, dandelions, oak trees and many more. We also take a closer look at natural phenomenon such as metamorphoses and migration, learn about classification in the animal kingdom or become an expert on the collective nouns for birds. And each section finishes with an activity to do when you get home: plant wild flowers, make a bird feeder, try pond dipping, make a journey stick and build a terrarium. The journey stick is such a wonderful idea; a physical memory of a journey through nature. At the end of the book is a useful glossary and a list of helpful organisations that all young naturalists will find informative and empowering. 

 

I would recommend this book for children in Years 3 to 6 in primary. Many Year 3 classes (and above) throughout the UK will have already engaged with The Lost Words in some form or other, and Wild Child provides many similar varied curriculum opportunities, whether it be writing poems in English or creating terrariums in Science, for example. This makes it highly relevant to the teaching of English, Geography, Art and Science learning throughout Key Stage 2. Its gentle, intimate and poetic characteristics also make it a great ‘Reading for Pleasure’ choice, and will help educate young people about our stewardship of the world around us. As McAnulty writes: ‘The outside world is at its most beautiful when we treat it with kindness, leaving no trace that we’ve ever been there. We should only leave the echoes of our laughter.’ Prepare to be grown.

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