The Green Planet

Leisa Stewart-Sharpe

Kim Smith

Cbeebies. 2022

64pp., hbk.,RRP $A29.99

9781405946667

“About 500 million years ago, long before dinosaurs roamed, primitive plants crept across this barren rock called Earth.  Tiny mosses and liverworts hugged the ground, creating the first soil and pumping oxygen into the atmosphere.  This planet became a Green Planet…”

Now, Earth is dominated by plants, which outweigh all other life – from tiny duckweed floating in our ponds to giant sequoia trees towering above us. It’s easy to take plants for granted, but we depend on these light-eaters, oxygen-generators, and rain-makers for every breath of air and mouthful of food we take. Plants that can  care for other plants and can smell, taste, touch, hear and even ‘talk’. 

In collaboration with BBC Earth, this illustrated non-fiction book captures the intrigue, drama, and beauty of the groundbreaking new BBC TV series: The Green Planet. opening up a world of natural history that is often overlooked or deemed not as dynamic as the animal kingdom.  Each double-page spread explores a different aspect from the battle for light in the tropical world so surviving in the sands and the desert to the secret gardens of the sea using full-colour illustrations, and text presented in accessible chunks that offer the most intriguing information.  Did you know there is a “wood wide web” of fungi roots kilometres long that share nutrients with other plants, including those in distress?

Sir David Attenborough, who narrated the television series says, ” We can all work with plants to help make our world greener and a little wilder.  If we do this…our future on this planet will be safer and healthier- and my own experience tells me that we will also be happier.” There are suggestions for how each of us can help make this happen and this book is the ideal starting point becasus the more we know the more we understand, appreciate and value.