Nature and Me: A guide to the joys and excitements of the outdoors

by The School of Life, Alain de Botton (Editor), Tyla Mason (Illustrator)

Overview

An essential guide to encourage children to explore, enjoy and benefit from the natural world around them.
Children are used to hearing about how important it is to protect nature, but they may not fully understand how the natural world can positively impact their emotional wellbeing. With that in mind, this book looks to enhance this time spent outside and show children how nature can be fun, uplifting, consoling, and even offer companionship.
This is a book about how nature can touch us all and help us with our lives (especially when we might be feeling bored, sad, or lonely). Children learn about the ways in which they can be comforted, inspired, and uplifted by examples of nature such as:
– a flowing river
– a cow in a field
– clouds in the sky
– rabbits in their burrows
– stars at night
– or a cuddle with a favorite puppy.
This is an inspirational book, not just educating children about the natural world, but teaching them to love and connect with it. Beautiful illustrations and a tone that is encouraging, warm and accessible makes it easy for children, and their favorite adults, to relate to.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781912891832
Publisher:	The School of Life
Publication date:	06/03/2021
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
File size:	6 MB
Age Range:	8 - 15 Years

About the Author

The School of Life is a global organization helping people lead more fulfilled lives. Through our range of books, gifts and stationery we aim to prompt more thoughtful natures and help everyone to find fulfillment. The School of Life is a resource for exploring self-knowledge, relationships, work, socializing, finding calm, and enjoying culture through content, community, and conversation. You can find us online, in stores and in welcoming spaces around the world offering classes, events, and one-to-one therapy sessions.

The School of Life is a rapidly growing global brand, with over 6 million YouTube subscribers, 351,000 Facebook followers, 218,000 Instagram followers and 163,000 Twitter followers.

The School of Life Press brings together the thinking and ideas of the School of Life creative team under the direction of series editor, Alain de Botton. Their books share a coherent, curated message that speaks with one voice: calm, reassuring, and sane.

Tyla Mason is an illustrator based in Cape Town, South Africa. She graduated from Cape Town Creative Academy with a BA in Communication Design, and has since created illustrations for Casimir magazine, Rookie, and Malala Fund. A lot of her work centers around girlhood and education, with a character-driven style that is colorful and engaging.

Read an Excerpt

6. You are a hedgehog!
You’re not really a hedgehog, of course. But one of the very clever things your brain can do is think about what it would be like to be a hedgehog.
You’d be sleeping most of the day and you’d be getting up when it started to get dark – so no school for you! You’d only be about 20 centimetres long. If you came across an old football boot it might look like a strange cousin.
You get excited by the smell of a rotting leaf – maybe underneath there’s a delicious caterpillar or a lovely beetle you can have for breakfast. You don’t walk very fast – it might take you a few minutes just to go along a short garden path (you really like human gardens).
You’ve never watched television. You don’t know what a holiday is. You can’t think in words, but you have lots of feelings.
When you meet another hedgehog, you’re both quite chatty. You grunt and snuffle and make little squeals to show you’re happy to meet each other.
But it’s very scary if you catch sight of a badger or hear an owl hooting. You quickly roll yourself up into a little ball, with all your sharp, spiky hairs sticking out to keep you safe.
Soon it will be morning and you’ll head home to the cosy little burrow you dug in some soft earth, hidden away behind some bushes.
The hedgehog is teaching you about imagination. You could also imagine what it’s like to be someone else: a grown-up, maybe, or someone living in another country. If you were them, what would you be feeling? What would excite you? What would frighten you? Your imagination helps you to understand other people much better.
You can use your brain to travel into the minds and lives of other people and animals. It’s one of the most interesting and helpful journeys you can ever make.

Table of Contents

Introduction
1. Aldebaran: sometimes it’s nice to feel small
2. The leopard shark: understanding what’s scary
3. The giant redwood tree: don’t waste your time!
4. The scorpion: you are the expert!
5. The flatfish: life is amazing and pretty weird!
6. You are a hedgehog!
7. A puppy knows you’re fantastic
8. Being happy like a cow
9. The view from a plane window can help you feel calm
10. Clouds come for free
11. Sunshine: do you know why you’re feeling grumpy?
12. The okapi: feeling confident
13. The Alps: feeling big on the inside
14. The river: the stages of life
15. A rabbit burrow: feeling cosy
16. Chimpanzees: why it’s tough being human
17. The Arabian Desert: why your brain is like a cupboard
18. The stone pine: being resourceful
19. The giant anteater: it’s okay to feel sad
20. The swallow: there are lots of ways of being clever
21. The African dromedary camel: realising things won’t be perfect
22. The spider’s web: delicacy
23. The Femminello lemon: hope
24. The ant colony: cooperation
25. Cherry blossom: nature is beautiful
26. Bamboo: resilience
27. The fig: small pleasures
28. The clump of grass: one way to stop feeling bored
29. The snail: how to carry your home with you
30. The mother elephant: why parents fuss
31. The window box: helping things grow
32. Lightning: the difference between imagination and understanding
33. The horizon of the sea: being an explorer

Editorial Reviews

***What Readers are saying:***

"The great outdoors, a place of discovery, of wonder, of beauty and of joy. We are often told that it is important for us to protect nature but how often are we encouraged to embrace it, to share in its bounty, to explore it in order to have a positive impact on our own well-being? Now is your chance, Tyla Mason has simply and stunningly illustrated this School Of Life fact-filled exploratory extravaganza." – Armadillo Magazine

"This thought-provoking book should provide many opportunities to discuss and learn from the natural world. Highly recommend for classrooms and libraries." – School Library Journal Starred Reviews

"I like that it made emotions real life things and helped me understand my emotions more and why I sometimes feel the way I do." – Niamh (age 8), Goodreads

"I think this book is great because it creates the bigger picture and let’s you see nature in a different way. It is a very educational yet fun and uplifting. I would definitely recommend this book to anyone who has a passion for nature or wants to learn about it." – Goodreads review

"Wow this is simply beautiful. I really loved the colourful pages, illustrations and text." – NetGalley review

"As a teacher, I think this would make a wonderful resource for my classroom. It displays facts about nature in a unique way with beautiful illustrations and offers children a different approach to considering nature. Each page offers opportunity for reflection and mindfulness with lots of talking points for whole class discussions (or discussions with your child before bedtime)." – NetGalley review

"A wonderful walk through nature, covering all areas and aspects of nature. Very beautifully written and kept us captivated." – NetGalley review

"The writing in Nature and Me is lovely, the facts are concise, and the book is highly readable for kids aged eight and up. Each section is accompanied by a beautifully drawn illustration." – NetGalley review

"A great resource for teachers, librarians, and parents to engage with children." – NetGalley review

“This book is interesting, inspirational, informative and teaches respect to the natural world. Stunning illustrations and easy to follow text, is a dream of every parent.” – NetGalley review

"This is a gorgeously illustrated and informative children's book packed full of facts about nature and the outdoors." – Avocado Diaries

"This book explains nature in a humorous and informative way. It was delightful to read and would be an excellent resource in schools and nurseries." – NetGalley review

"An interesting book that looks at different things from nature and how you can use them to help make better choices in your own ways of thinking and behaving. A good choice for adding variety to your bookshelves and giving children the chance to explore and think for themselves.” – NetGalley review

"It's such a clever book that links the benefits of exploring the outdoor world and our mental health. The book also gives you thoughts to ponder upon and helps you think about dealing with situations in different ways.” – NetGalley review

"A charming book to help a young person learn about nature and themselves and appreciate both too." – NetGalley review

"This is a brilliantly informative book about the ways nature can help us and enrich our lives. … Not only does this book have a lovely warm tone and beautiful pictures but it contains bite-sized chunks of information about the natural world from all sorts of fascinating geographical locations.” – NetGalley review

"A heart-warming and informative read. Each set of pages features simple, stylish artworks paired with science facts about different types of flora and fauna as well as a kid-friendly mindfulness message. The design and layout is brilliant! I want this for my coffee table now ... The vibrant colors and peaceful points make for a very hygge gem of a book. I felt smarter and got warm fuzzies reading this." – NetGalley review

"This is really cute and contains great lessons. The artwork is gorgeous and bright. I think there are wonderful messages within the story about life [and] nature. It's inspirational and brilliant. I loved the examples used to teach different life lessons." – NetGalley review

From the Publisher

2022-04-27
Designed to inspire contentment with lessons from the natural world.

The book makes clear upfront that it’s concerned with “nice and interesting feelings you can get from nature” and “why these feelings are important and how they can help you in your life.” The spreads that follow metaphorically use elements from nature to deliver life lessons. On their own, some are quite effective. For example, “In comparison to the mountains, you’re tiny (we all are), but your mind is even bigger.” A spider web serves as an example of how being “delicate” is actually a strength. One right after another, however, they become predictable and pedantic. The creators’ British roots are apparent with references to maths, crisps, and fizzy drinks. Longish text (200 to 300 words per spread) maintains a calm and reassuring tone. Graphic, collagelike illustrations evoke the character of each natural feature but are not naturalistic portraits. An image of a giant redwood bears little resemblance to its real-life counterpart; the anteater’s sorrowful visage is exaggerated to emphasize the point that sometimes it’s OK to feel sad. The dense, sincere text seems aimed at teens, but its 9-by-10-inch trim size and illustrations may draw readers younger than the intended audience. The book will be most appreciated by counselors, teachers, and well-meaning caregivers.

Earnest and message driven but not likely to engage children or teens. (Nonfiction self-help. 10-15)

Kirkus Reviews