From bestselling Landmarks author Robert Macfarlane and acclaimed
artist and author Jackie Morris, a beautiful collection of poems and
illustrations to help readers rediscover the magic of the natural
world.
In 2007, when a new edition of the Oxford Junior Dictionary -- widely
used in schools around the world -- was published, a sharp-eyed reader
soon noticed that around forty common words concerning nature had been
dropped. Apparently they were no longer being used enough by children to
merit their place in the dictionary. The list of these "lost words"
included acorn, adder, bluebell, dandelion, fern, heron,
kingfisher, newt, otter, and willow. Among the words taking
their place were attachment, blog, broadband, bullet-point,
cut-and-paste, and voice-mail. The news of these substitutions --
the outdoor and natural being displaced by the indoor and virtual --
became seen by many as a powerful sign of the growing gulf between
childhood and the natural world.
Ten years later, Robert Macfarlane and Jackie Morris set out to make a
"spell book" that will conjure back twenty of these lost words, and the
beings they name, from acorn to wren. By the magic of word and
paint, they sought to summon these words again into the voices, stories,
and dreams of children and adults alike, and to celebrate the wonder and
importance of everyday nature. The Lost Words is that book -- a work
that has already cast its extraordinary spell on hundreds of thousands
of people and begun a grass-roots movement to re-wild childhood across
Britain, Europe, and North America.
