Botanicum (Welcome to the Museum Series)

by Kathy Willis, Katie Scott (Illustrator)

Overview

Discover more than 160 exhibits in this virtual museum, open all hours.

The 2017 offering from Big Picture Press's Welcome to the Museum series, Botanicum, is a brilliantly curated guide to plant life. With artwork from Katie Scott of Animalium fame, Botanicum gives readers the experience of a fascinating exhibition from the pages of a beautiful book. From perennials to bulbs to tropical exotica, Botanicum is a wonderful feast of botanical knowledge complete with superb cross sections of how plants work.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780763689230
Publisher:	Candlewick Press
Publication date:	03/14/2017
Series:	Welcome to the Museum Series
Pages:	112
Sales rank:	49,584
Product dimensions:	10.80(w) x 14.70(h) x 0.60(d)
Age Range:	8 - 12 Years

About the Author

Kathy Willis is the director of science at the Royal Botanic Gardens in Kew, England. She is also a professor of biodiversity in the zoology department at the University of Oxford and an adjunct biology professor at the University of Bergen. She has authored or co-authored more than one hundred scientific publications, including the landmark book The Evolution of Plants. This is her first book for younger readers.

Katie Scott studied illustration at the University of Brighton before moving to London. Her clients include the New York Times and Nike, and her album cover for Bombay Bicycle Club was nominated for Best Album Artwork at Britain’s NME Awards.

Editorial Reviews

★ 01/23/2017
In a coffee-table-ready companion to Animalium and Historium, readers make their way through seven “galleries” devoted to “the first plants,” trees, herbaceous plants, and other categories of flora, which are further subdivided; a spread devoted to “belowground edible plants” features cutaway images of a winged yam, beet, carrot, and other roots, assembled as if ready for a recipe. Scott’s exquisitely detailed illustrations call to mind antique botanical prints, and Willis, director of science at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, identifies each plant and provides vivid descriptions: “Orchids are the actors of the plant world, and the weird and varied shapes of the flowers reflect many highly specialized pollination systems.” Visually stunning, it’s an engrossing overview of Earth’s remarkable and diverse plant life that provides opportunities for ongoing discovery on every page. Ages 8–12. (Mar.)

Publishers Weekly

Visually stunning, it’s an engrossing overview of Earth’s remarkable and diverse plant life that provides opportunities for ongoing discovery on every page.
—Publishers Weekly (starred review)

Elegantly encapsulating these dizzyingly diverse and ubiquitous wonders, Scott’s photographic illustrations, too, offer astronomical appeal. Complete with an index and sources for suggested reading, this dazzling display is ideal for classroom and coffee-table collections, budding botanists and curious kids, and everywhere—and everyone—in between.
—Booklist (starred review)

A beautifully constructed compendium of plant life from around the world that offers up a visual and informational treat for future botanists and casual browsers alike...The large format, sumptuous artwork, and thoughtful writing put this one a cut above the rest and make this a must-have for any library that can house it.
—School Library Journal

As in companion volume Animalium by Jenny Broom and also illustrated by Scott (2014), the digitally colored images are not drawn to scale but are rendered with as much attention to visual impact as to exact, formal anatomical detail...a big, decorative, eye-filling survey.
—Kirkus Reviews

This title makes a sizable claim to operate as a museum of world plants, and it delivers in a big way...The text is accessible to 3rd grade classrooms (pictures will impress those even younger), yet will still offer interest to secondary grades for botany class or browsing.
—School Library Connection

Containing everything from perennials to bulbs to tropical exotica, this wonderful feast of botanical knowledge is complete with superb cross sections to show how plants work.
—Houston Lifestyles & Homes

From the Publisher

03/01/2017
Gr 5 Up—A beautifully constructed compendium of plant life from around the world that offers up a visual and informational treat for future botanists and casual browsers alike. Part of the series that includes Historium and Animalium, this volume is formatted to resemble a trip to the botanical gardens. Each section provides a broad overview of the types of plants featured in the gallery, accompanied by lush, gorgeous pen-and-ink drawings that have been colored digitally. Illustrated plates highlight a number of different kinds of plants with further details, such as location, size, etc. The language is thorough yet accessible, making this a great choice for upper elementary and middle school libraries. The pages are thick and creamy; the drawings are detailed and colorful yet subdued. The whole package is a pleasure for the senses, and each turn of the page opens up a wonderful new world of plants. The title harkens back to a time of collectible books in which one would find pressed flowers between the pages. The pages depicting carnivorous plants and the Christmas star orchid are among the highlights. VERDICT The large format, sumptuous artwork, and thoughtful writing put this one a cut above the rest and make this a must-have for any library that can house it.—Jody Kopple, Shady Hill School, Cambridge, MA

School Library Journal

2017-01-17
A large-format tour of the plant world, organized into seven "galleries" of related types. As in companion volume Animalium by Jenny Broom and also illustrated by Scott (2014), the digitally colored images are not drawn to scale but are rendered with as much attention to visual impact as to exact, formal anatomical detail. From one to a dozen or so exquisite examples—most of which, at least for larger species, are isolated fruits, flowers, leaves, or other parts rather than clinically complete specimens—are artistically arranged on each recto, with brief but specific descriptive and environmental notes on the facing page. Aside from the opening gallery of algae, ferns, and other "First Plants," the sections are presented in no obvious order and range in scope from "Trees" and "Herbaceous Plants" to "Orchids and Bromeliads." Some sections include spreads on select environments, such as rain forests, and a final catch-up gallery introduces parasitic and carnivorous plants along with a handful of adaptations to particular environmental niches. Willis' commentary is sometimes technical enough to make a glossary helpful, but there isn't one. Not encyclopedic but reasonably systematic: a big, decorative, eye-filling survey. (index, websites) (Nonfiction. 9-12)

Kirkus Reviews