There are very few books that are as relevant and impactful for a child and an adult alike … ‘LOTS, The Diversity of Life on Earth’ is one such book. We stumbled across this book in one of our favourite bookshops and we are beyond happy that we did.

This book, which is beautifully and emotively written by Nicola Davies and the amazingly detailed illustrations by Emily Sutton, tells the tale of a subject which is, needs to be, and should be close to all our hearts … the subject of our planet and our absolute need to mind, protect and care for it.

The message begins by counting from one .. one girl who takes us through all the types of things in the world … from big things to small things … from deserts to islands .. from the discovery of living things to the thrill of the many more there may be to find …the dependence of living things on each other … the ‘big, beautiful, complicated pattern of life’ … the pattern that we humans are destroying .. reducing the living things that are there to find … impacting on the many … to perhaps find ourselves, devastatingly, back to the one … back to just the human at the beginning of the story.
The impact this story has is so powerful. It lends itself to children (and adults) of all ages. Our 2 and 4 year old love it. But older children would get even more out of it. The discussions it can start. The awareness and the responsibility of minding our planet. The message is so powerfully, yet so simply portrayed. As @guardian put it, this book is ‘truly special’ and we wouldn’t agree more.

If you are someone with an interest in the environment (which should be all of us) … in the world around you … if you are a parent with a child (we have an absolute duty as parents to inform our children of the impact we have on the environment) .. then we really couldn’t recommend this book highly enough.

** Picture our own.