The Boy In and Out of the Bubble: How Connecting to Oneself is Part of Connecting to the World – NSSM2020

Guest Post by M.Evan Wolkenstein When I was sixteen, I joined my school’s environmental club. We were trying to save a “green space” (really a vacant lot) downtown. It was home to monarch butterflies in migration, and the club urged local residents to take action to protect the habitat. My parents were shocked: until this […]

Planet Power – NSSM2020

Guest Post by Robin Jacobs I have always been enthralled by the power of nature. When I was little, my favourite thing was to go outside during a storm. Ideally barefoot.  My mum was mostly tolerant unless it was particularly cold or muddy outside. I recently discovered my 6-year-old nephew has the same predilection. He […]

Telling Stories about the Planet We Share – NSSM2020

Guest Post by Isabel Thomas Once upon a time, there was a planet that was not too hot, not too cold, but just right…   The science behind climate change is vital. Vast amounts of data cataloguing millions of years of Earth’s history allow us to fully understand what is happening to the planet we share. […]

The story of plastic – NSSM2020

Guest Post by Katie Daynes Have you had a plastic ‘penny drop’ moment? A moment when you realised how totally bonkers it is to take something that will last for hundreds of years, use it only once, then throw it away? Perhaps you’ve had a plastic OUTRAGE moment when you’ve seen an image of an […]

Information Book Award 2020

by Margaret Pemberton, SLA Judging Panel Chair It is now 10 years since the School Library Association, at the suggestion of its reviews editor Chris Brown, founded the first Information Book Award.  Since then it has gone on to become a major contributor to the world of children’s publishing and education.  Over this period there […]

The Wild Way Home – NSSM2020

Guest Post by Sophie Kirtley Hello, I’m Sophie Kirtley, the author of The Wild Way Home. Come and take a little wander with me to one small corner of our wonderful planet; I’d like to share a special place with you – that place is Mandel Forest, where my new book is set. Let’s follow […]

Jungledrop – NSSM2020

Guest Post by Abi Elphinstone With my latest book, Jungledrop, I wanted to write a story that revelled in the beauty of the natural world but also highlighted its fragility. A few years ago, I visited the world’s largest tropical wetland: the Pantanal, an enormous patchwork of lagoons, marshes and lakes sprawling Brazil, Bolivia and […]

There’s a Rang-tan in My Bedroom – NSSM2020

Guest Feature by James Sellick When first presenting There’s a Rang-tan in My Bedroom to Greenpeace, we pitched it alongside a wide array of ideas, each aiming to bring the horrible truth about palm oil to the surface in its own unique way. Most ideas were, as you’d expect, shocking and controversial. ‘May include charred […]

A Climate In Chaos

Blog Tour Post written by Samantha Thomas As the FCBG celebrate NSSM with the theme The Planet We Share this May it seems incredibly fitting to take up a stop on the A Climate In Chaos Virtual Blog Tour to celebrate this latest title by Neal Layton. Published by Hachette (Wren & Rook) the book […]

Nature and Grief – NSSM2020

Guest Post by Richard Lambert I am writing this during lockdown. I am lucky – I am not in a small flat in the middle of a city and I have a small patch of garden. It’s a garden I have neglected and, now normal life has been put on hold, it’s a place I […]