National Trust: 2019 Nature Month-By-Month: A Children’s Almanac by Anna Wilson
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
It’s the little details about this book that make me happy. The idea of a month-by-month review of the year is no new one within the world of children’s publishing. I recently have been spending several very happy hours with similar titles from the fifties, that show children how to press flowers and make pinhole cameras, and a more modern version of these books is a great and lovely thing. And as ever with Nosy Crow, it’s produced with an absolute finesse that makes the book nerd inside me very satisfied. The book has rounded edges (perfect for stuffing in a rucksack and not getting damaged), and a little ribbon (and books with ribbon are always welcome in the world), and it’s sturdily and robustly put together. This is a book that wants to be used, and should be.
Published in collaboration with The National Trust, this almanac wears its affiliation lightly. It’s not asking children to visit their nearest stately home which was something I wondered about (it’s always a worry in content of this nature). Rather the book works towards a different goal where children of all ethnicities, genders and background work to enjoy the wild world. The artwork is lovely; round and rich and stylised, and full of fun. This is the work of Elly Jahnz who’s done something very beautiful here. It’s hard to make, say, a seashell collectors guide a particularly dynamic spread, but she manages to do so. Working alongside Anna Wilson who wrote this, the two of them produce something kind of delightful. And nice. More books should be nice and talk about everything from making April Fool to how to go wild swimming.
I’m reviewing this towards the end of January for a deliberate reason. It’s about this time that the post-Christmas blues hit in. Everyone’s back at school, back at work, and the weather isn’t perhaps the best. Perhaps it’s even snowing a little bit (she says, with a look at the camera and a gesture outside her window). Books like this offer a way to navigate those blues and to pull the outside in, and to do so as a family. They deserve a spotlight of their very own.
My thanks to the publisher for a review copy.
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Daisy May Johnson 
The National Trust are great with stuff like this – they did a “things to do before you’re 11 3/4″ campaign”, which was all about nature and exploring the outdoor world.
ah yes, that was excellent!
Sounds like a lovely book.
Nice to see snow outside your window — makes a pleasant contrast to the sun-bleached grass and parched shrubs outside my windows
There’s about six days in Autumn that I’m perfectly happy with 🙂
Oh, me too! A dozen lovely days scattered through autumn, and half a dozen nice days in spring (as long as I’m taking antihistamines), and the rest of the year is Too Hot or Too Cold 🙂