The Big Book of Blooms

by Yuval Zommer, Elisa Biondi (Editor), Scott Taylor (Editor), Barbara Taylor (Editor)

Overview

The next installment in the popular The Big Book series is a fascinating introduction to some of the most magnificent and surprising flowering plants from around the world.

In The Big Book of Blooms, the next installment in the wildly successful The Big Book series, Yuval Zommer’s charming illustrations bring to life some of the most colorful, flamboyant, and unusual flowers from across the globe.

In the opening pages, readers will learn all about botany, including how to recognize different types of flowers. Subsequent pages illustrate the various habitats that are home to flora such as pitcher plants, the giant water lily, and the weirdly wonderful corpse flower. Readers will discover which flowers are endangered and why some blooms are fragrant or colorful, not to mention grisly details about carnivorous and poisonous flowers.

This title pairs picture-book charm and concise, informative text to create a beautiful book for children to return to. Zommer’s quirky illustrations appeal to young readers, who will relish these fun and amazing facts about the world’s most exciting plants.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780500651995
Publisher:	Thames & Hudson
Publication date:	05/05/2020
Series:	The Big Book Series
Pages:	64
Sales rank:	212,880
Product dimensions:	9.20(w) x 13.50(h) x 0.60(d)
Age Range:	4 - 8 Years

About the Author

Yuval Zommer is an author, illustrator, and environmentalist based in London. He studied at the Royal College of Art and worked for many years as a creative director at leading advertising agencies before becoming an author and illustrator. His award-winning Big Book series has now been published in thirty languages and has over 2 million copies in print.

Barbara Taylor has worked as a science editor and writer at London’s Natural History Museum. She is an award-winning author and consultant for over one hundred children’s books.

Editorial Reviews

"Zommer’s refreshingly clever, bright, watercolor illustrations of flowers, insects, and birds flow across double-page spreads, some vertical, some horizontal… This joins four other books in Zommer’s excellent Big Book series."

Booklist

2020-03-25
Spirited illustrations brighten a large-format introduction to flowers and their pollinators.

Showing a less Eurocentric outlook than in his Big Book of Birds (2019), Zommer employs agile brushwork and a fondness for graceful lines and bright colors to bring to life bustling bouquets from a range of habitats, from rainforest to desert. Often switching from horizontal to vertical orientations, the topical spreads progress from overviews of major floral families and broad looks at plant anatomy and reproduction to close-ups of select flora—roses and tulips to Venus flytraps and stinking flowers. The book then closes with a shoutout to the conservators and other workers at Kew Gardens (this is a British import) and quick suggestions for young balcony or windowsill gardeners. In most of the low-angled scenes, fancifully drawn avian or insect pollinators with human eyes hover around all the large, luscious blooms, as do one- or two-sentence comments that generally add cogent observations or insights: “All parts of the deadly nightshade plant contain poison. It has been used to poison famous emperors, kings and warriors throughout history.” (Confusingly for the audience, the accurate but limited assertion that bees “often visit blue or purple flowers” appears to be contradicted by an adjacent view of several zeroing in on a yellow toadflax.) Human figures, or, in one scene, hands, are depicted in a variety of sizes, shapes, and skin colors.

A floral fantasia for casual browsers as well as budding botanists. (glossary, index) (Informational picture book. 7-9)

Kirkus Reviews