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Books for the young and not so young

This Book is a Plant, How to Grow, Learn and Radically Engage with the Natural World

The way we think about plants is about to change forever: this is your handbook to a new natural world. We’ve become used to thinking of plants as things for us to use: as food, tools, resources, or just as an attractive background to our own lives.

Research shows that plants can think, plan – and may even have memories. We share our planet with beings whose potential we have only glimpsed. This Book is a Plant is made from paper: it was once part of a tree. But it’s also a seed: a new way of seeing the world around us.

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What Do You See When You Look At A Tree? by Emma Carlisle.

Leaves and twigs and branches? Or do you see a real, living thing, That moves, and breathes and dances?  This wonderful picture book explores themes of empathy, mindfulness and personal growth through the eyes of a child. Mindfulness tips and information about trees are included at the back of the book for both adult and child to read together. Rhyming text asks questions that show there’s more to trees than meets the eye. Above and below the ground; they provide shade and enjoyment to humans; and they are useful for their wood and fruit. The importance of tree root systems and the “wood wide web,” which is trees’ ability to share nutrients with other trees – in effect, they create tree families.
For ages 3-7.

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Intelligent Hands. Young people are leaving school with no idea that craft-based careers are even possible. Where did the idea come from that white-collar work should be rewarded more with money and status than that of a blue-collar worker? Intelligent Hands looks at this phenomenon, the historical precedents that led us here and why hand skills are crucial in education and for lifelong learning.
The authors are on a mission to enlighten and persuade the naysayers who dismiss craft as no more than a nice hobby or believe that doing things with your hands is for those who can’t use their heads. For the converted, more grist to your mills, ammunition for funding applications and inspiration.

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Crossings: How road ecology is shaping the future of our planet. Ben Goldfarb reports on the damage done by 64 million kilometres of roads that intersect with how nature has arranged herself over eons and how we have carved it up for cars and trucks. We tend to regard them only as infrastructure for human convenience.

While roads are so ubiquitous they’re practically invisible to us, wild animals experience them as entirely alien forces of death and disruption. The result an estimated 5.5 million animals are collateral damage from vehicles every day = 2 billion per annum. This is a shout out for road ecologists.

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This Little Joey by Renee Treml is a board book starring Australia’s many marsupial joeys.
All baby marsupials are known as joeys, yet they come in many different shapes and sizes.
Some of Australia’s rare, endangered baby marsupials are featured but not the bandicoot or the bilby – disappointing.

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The Comfort Crisis, by Michael Easter,
20:5:3    –    Daily Dose: 20 Minutes
Keep it simple and pop to the closest pocket park. The idea is to reorient with natural surroundings and allow them — the leaves, a pond, cries from birds, whatever — to help you cultivate an island of calm.
Monthly Immersion: Five Hours
For energy, healing and inspiration.
Annual Reset: Three Days
If struggling with getting in enough nature on a weekly or monthly basis, work to optimize that first.

MMM Issue 43, April-May 2024