Blog Tour – The Wild

I was lucky enough to be sent a free copy of this in exchange for a review. All views and opinions are my own.

The Wild by Yuval Zommer, published by Oxford Children’s

I always love Yuval Zommer’s playful, expressive illustrations and the way his love of the natural world shines through them so when I was invited to be part of the blog tour for this, his latest book, I jumped at the chance.

And nowhere is this love of nature more evident than in The Wild. A cautionary yet hopeful tale of caring for our planet, standing up for your beliefs and the power of working together, this is a much-needed and most relevant book.

Coming hot on the tail of the felling of the tree at Sycamore Gap and the government’s back tracking on any kind of green issues amidst one of the warmest years on record this is a timely reminder of the power we hold to help or hinder nature and the responsibility we have to get this right for future generations.

It gently tells the story of a once balanced relationship, in which The Wild provided and we took only what we needed and cared for it. But over time, humans became greedy and selfish, taking more and more until The Wild is unwell and can give no more. Luckily one boy sees and one boy shouts and one boy becomes many and change is underway once more, this time to restore The Wild.

This is a gorgeous book – from its gold embellished cover to the lush and verdant, living Wild inside. As you’d expect from Zommer’s books the pictures feel alive, the layers and lines and patterns and textures are easy to get lost in and the use of colour and tone is so effective in highlighting both damage and hope.

I also really loved the way we see the city and The Wild co-existing harmoniously at the end, which is so important, especially for those children living in built up, urban areas to see.

The text is simple enough for the very youngest readers but with a strong enough message to be read by the very oldest too (indeed, it is perhaps the grown ups who need it most). It would be a wonderful book to use for environmental topics, projects or assemblies in schools and there’s a wealth of activities that kids of all ages could do linked to it – check out some ideas below:

• Make a Wild ‘creature’! The Wild in the book is depicted as a sort of living being – create your own. This could be imagined, drawn, painted, modelled but I think it would be an awesome collaborative project on a large scale too – use recycled materials, junk etc to make it!
• Campaign for change! One boy starts shouting and gathers a crowd to create change. It might not be so simple in real life, but choose one environmental issue you care about – make posters or presentations about it, write to companies or local MPs, fundraise or organise a litter pick, make space to plant…
• Make one small change! Find one small swap, change or activity you can do or make to help the environment.
• Plant something! A window box, a garden, a pot on a step, at school, at home, at an allotment, a flower, some veg, a tree, a bush…
• Get creative with nature! Make leaf prints. Use found natural objects – conkers, leaves, twigs, petals, acorns, feathers… to make patterns or picturesb(then rearrange them and make something else!). Take rubbings of leaves, bark or other natural textures. Draw outside. Paint outside. Go outside!

This is such a gorgeous book that gives such an important message so positively, which will have kids and adults of all ages absorbed by it and taking inspiration from it, both artistically and environmentally – brilliant!

Thanks so much to Oxford Children’s for inviting me to join the blog tour, and to you for reading my review! Don’t forget to check out the other stops on the tour this week!