Powered by Plants - Clive Gifford

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Author: Clive Gifford

Illustrator: Gosia Herba
Genre: Children's Nonfiction, Nature
Rating: 4.5 stars.

What a marvellous book this is!

We’ve seen so many books praising the skills of animals. But nature isn’t just animals. Finally, here’s a children’s nonfiction that celebrates plants and their ingenious ways of surviving and thriving in nature.

The book covers a wide variety of plants of all types and demonstrates one unique ability that they have, which human engineers have replicated or are trying to replicate. These range from common plants such as the peace lily to weeds such as tumbleweeds to carnivorous plants such as the Venus Flytrap to underwater plants such as the kelp to trees such as the willow.

The book is 80 pages long, and each of these pages (except for a few) contains details on one specific plant, its features and the ability that we humans could learn. I liked how the content was presented from the first person perspective of the specific plant on that page. This created a beautiful connect and also helped incorporate a touch of humour to the narration.

The accompanying illustrations are fabulous and show not just the plant but also a detailed view of their relevant habits. Every page is completely in colour, and I am sure the physical copy would be outstanding to look at.

The only complaint I have is that the text is a little cramped up. I think this is because there is a lot of content per page. Though the text is definitely easy to understand for the target age group (7-12 years) and is sectioned into logical paragraphs, it still looks a bit cluttered on the digital copy. This might not be an issue in the physical copy.

Humankind has always considered itself the smartest of the species. This book shows that even plants can be way smarter than us and we still have a long way to go in making the maximum use of available natural resources while causing minimal destruction to the environment. Hopefully, we learn a little humility as well by reading about these amazing plants and trees. Humans have a lot to learn from nature after all; high time we stop considering ourselves the masters of the planet and incorporate more respect in our dealings with nature.

Recommended not just to every little plant lover but to anyone who wants to see the wonders of nature. What a wonderful addition this would make to homes, schools and libraries!

This is my third book by Clive Gifford and all three of them have been enlightening experiences. Definitely a children’s author worth reading!

My thanks to Quarto Publishing Group – Wide Eyed Editions and NetGalley for the DRC of “Powered by Plants”. This review is voluntary and contains my honest opinion about the book.

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