Plantastic!

ABBEY'S BOOKSELLER PICK ----- Years ago I volunteered at the loan centre of the Queensland Museum, and this is exactly the sort of book we would have easily used in constructing our loans! Which is the highest praise I can personally give for any non-fiction children's book! Twenty-six native plants are featured on double page spreads. Rather beautiful and accurately rendered watercolour illustrations on clean white pages complement the excellent text which gives a good amount of information. Each plant has a fabulous fact in a separate box of text (for example - Utricularia trap swimming insects whilst Drosera catch flying ones) and also a simple activity connected with the plant (build a little shelter of fallen fan-palm leaves or look for the face in a Banksia cone, search for orchids in the leaf litter or the difference of the leaves in mistletoes in branches above you). Also contains an excellent glossary, and the endpapers cleverly illustrate botanical terms (petiole/anthers/stipule etc). A wonderful book to give to up-and-coming botanists, as it does not talk down to them, but enthuses with the delights of the multiplicity of our native flora!  Lindy Jones