Environmental Books for Children: Reviews

T he Secret World of Lichens   Written by Troy McMullin Cover and interior design: Gareth Lind Published by Firefly Books Ltd. (2022)   Fairy Puke Lichen. Yes, that’s right. I could’ve started with Christmas Lichen or Devil’s Matchstick Lichen, of course, or the fantastically-named Blushing Rock Tripe Lichen. Or maybe Dead Man’s Fingers does it for you? Well, they’re all here in this wonderful introduction to lichens by  Troy McMullin, the Canadian Museum of Nature’s Head of Botany and chief lichenologist. Enlivened by stunning photography, this is a book  that encourages young naturalists to ‘look closely’ in their local environment for these wonderful organisms and to discover a secret world of bright colours, interesting shapes and super fun names!  The book opens with McMullin explaining what lichens are, what they look like and how they reproduce. The detail is considerable, but it is given context by a series of photographs of the three main types of liche...

  Broken Ground   Written by Lu Hersey Cover Design by Rhi Winter Published by Beaten Track Publishing, 2022   My heart sinks. It’s real. There’s no avoiding this. Ma was right to be worried. Andraste chose me. I’m the one she expects to pay the forfeit.   My first review for 2023 (and post-surgery read, as it happens) is Lu Hersey’s eco-thriller  Broken Ground . I became aware of Hersey following the publication of her highly-praised  Deep Water , and her latest novel certainly continues in the atmospheric, mythical vein of her debut.    The story centres on the struggles of Arlo, a teenage boy who lives with his mother and suffers seizures. The farm they used to live on is now owned by the hostile Phelps, who wants to move Arlo and his mother out of their cottage so he can turn it into a holiday let. Phelps is also hoping to find shale gas beneath the farmland, and has hired a company to investigate the potential for this by test drilling, which...