Out There in the Wild is a stunning collection of poems about everything that lives in the sea and rivers, on land and in the sky. You will meet eagles and skylarks, tigers asnd elephants, foxes, rabbits and bats, bees and butterflies. Written by various poems, they invite you to consider how we are connected to the wild. We are all nature, after all. James Carter is an award-winning children’s poet, writer and musician. Dom Conlon is a poet who was nominated for the Carnegie medal. Nicola Davies is a writer who was shortlisted for a Blue Peter Book Award. The book is illustrated by Diana Catchpole, who studied at Cambridge School of Art.
You don’t have to teach children the names of every wildlife or coastal find (though it’s quite a good idea). But introduce children to nature. Take them for a nature walk with a sketchbook, rather than having them look at bored, unhappy animals out of their natural habitats (ban zoos, aquariums and circuses in your house).
Take children for a walk in nature, and let them gaze at trees, marvel at flowers, splash in puddles and sing in the rain and snow. Have them play snowballs or poohsticks, let them appreciate the natural world. If they do this, we won’t end up with another Prime Minister who recently gave the go-ahead to knock down England’s second-oldest pear tree to make way for HS2, and regards newts as not important to consider when building new houses.
