Another step in rebuilding nature literacy
When writers and artists across the English-speaking world heard about the decision by the Oxford Junior Dictionary to remove over a hundred everyday words connected with nature, the response was clear: we must save words like conker, bluebell and buttercup from extinction. Writers for whom the loss of such words from children’s vocabulary was unthinkable, from Margaret Atwood in Canada to Andrew Motion and Michael Morpurgo in the UK, wrote to Oxford University Press to complain. Some, such as writer Robert Macfarlane and artist Jackie Morris, are publishing their own celebrations of what Macfarlane has called wonder-words.
Now prize-winning children’s poet Chrissie Gittins has built her latest collection around forty of the lost nature words, with the message: “Help save the names of these animals, plants and birds from extinction and be inspired to write your own poems using other words which have been culled!”
Chrissie Gittins was born in Lancashire and lives in south London. She worked as an artist and teacher before becoming a fulltime writer. Her poems have been animated for CBeebies and included in many anthologies. Adder, Bluebell, Lobster brings the natural world up close through dramatic and vivid poetic imagery.
Now prize-winning children’s poet Chrissie Gittins has built her latest collection around forty of the lost nature words, with the message: “Help save the names of these animals, plants and birds from extinction and be inspired to write your own poems using other words which have been culled!”
Chrissie Gittins was born in Lancashire and lives in south London. She worked as an artist and teacher before becoming a fulltime writer. Her poems have been animated for CBeebies and included in many anthologies. Adder, Bluebell, Lobster brings the natural world up close through dramatic and vivid poetic imagery.
From Adder to Wren, forty fantastic poems celebrate forty amazing animals, birds and plants and their beautiful names. Readers are invited to watch out for bossy Beetroot, be enchanted by a Bluebell witch’s thimble and spot a dive-bombing Lark or a cute Great-Crested Newt.
Adder, Bluebell, Lobster: Wild Poems is published on August 4 by Otter-Barry Books, an exciting new children’s imprint aiming to make a difference. It is illustrated by Paul Bommer, an illustrator, printmaker and graphic designer who worked with Chrissie on her book The Humpback’s Wail.
Adder, Bluebell, Lobster: Wild Poems is published on August 4 by Otter-Barry Books, an exciting new children’s imprint aiming to make a difference. It is illustrated by Paul Bommer, an illustrator, printmaker and graphic designer who worked with Chrissie on her book The Humpback’s Wail.
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