Gill Lewis: The Lost Words

This month, award-winning children’s author, Gill Lewis, recommends The Lost Words, an extraordinary book offering a window into the wild.

Here is my choice for Book of the Month…one I think should be in schools, prisons, care homes…and everyone’s bookshelves!

The Lost Words by Robert Macfarlane and Jackie Morris (which jointly won this year’s Nibbie Award for Children’s Book of the Year.)

Slowly and quietly, the names of animals and plants have been slipping from our language. The use of words such as otter and heron and bluebell has been diminishing between generations. If we lose these words from our language, we risk losing our love of the natural world and our power to protect it. This is a spell-book to conjure these words into our hearts and minds again.

Jackie Morris’s illustrations capture the spirit of animals and plants she paints, and Robert Macfarlane’s words are both playful and profound. It is a book to connect us to the natural world and re-wild our language and ultimately our world.

Thank you to Gill Lewis for choosing our Book of the Month!