Forest School Booklist

This book follows a group of animals as they prepare to spend the night camping as part of their Forest School work. The animals have to work together to complete a range of activities for Mrs Owl, who is the Forest School teacher. They learn the different wood needed to build a fire, how to cook popcorn over a fire, some of the names of the constellations and how our eyes adapt to see in the dark.

Squirrel is a little scared of the dark and Mrs Owl explains why there is nothing to be scared of. They finish the night with a cup of warm hot chocolate around the fire before snuggling up in their sleeping bags.

This book would be wonderful for EYFS or KS1 children that were taking part in Forest School or thinking of camping out, or those who wanted to introduce the topic of night time. The book has little side notes that provide detailed information about some of the technical words used in the story. The book also has suggestions of other activities children can complete, if they are part of a Forest School or just exploring the great outdoors. For example, there is a guide to Mrs Owl’s campfire bananas and how to improve your sight at night.

With the power of Stanley’s imagination, a simple stick can become any kind of toy that he wants. This entertaining story with brilliant illustrations is a celebration of children’s imaginary play.

Tidy is another amazing book by Emily Gravett. It is a simple story about how we can impact on our surroundings and why caring for our environment is vital. Gorgeous, engaging and delivering a powerful message…what more does a book need to be?

The story is well written, the rhyme works perfectly and the structure changes throughout. The message is also a very important one, introducing children to important ideas about habitat loss and preservation of the environment. It is done without being preachy and also shows children that there is always the possibility of making a positive change and fixing mistakes!

This is a gorgeous nature book that encourages children to stop and pause at the wonders of the world around them.

Posing the question, ‘What Do You See When You Look at a Tree?’, the book encourages mindfulness and gently challenges readers to notice how a tree’s leaves move and branches bend, or which animals might find in it a home, or what it has been and what it might become.

Narrated in a gently flowing rhyme and beautifully illustrated in watercolour artwork tapping into the colours of nature, What Do You See When You Look At A Tree? is an ode to nature and a wonderful addition to a child’s home or classroom library.

Benjamin Zephaniah had a huge talent for noticing and appreciating his surroundings and using his writing to make them special.

This illustrated poem is a call to appreciate the humble marvels of nature that surround us all – the woodlice, the baby daddy-longlegs, the creepy-crawlies. How easy it is to ignore or look down on what is familiar. Many children want to create settings from rainforests rather than the view from their doorstep; they prefer to describe tigers rather than the squirrels they see every day. However, I love the way this book validates the local and the ordinary and encourages children to observe proudly the small wonders of wherever they live. Even those who don’t have the luxury of a garden will recognise most of the things Zephaniah zooms in on.

I also enjoyed the deceptively simple rhymes that subtly emphasise the humming, the buzzing and the flowering that is all around us all the time. The accompanying illustrations have plenty of details for young children to have fun spotting, and the style does seem to define it as aimed at Nursery, Reception and Year 1 rather than older children.

It would accompany any work on minibeasts beautifully and could lead to both practical investigation of the outdoors and interesting creative work on observational writing, rhyme work, drawing and painting.

From the author-illustrator of ‘Who is in the Egg?’, ‘Whose tracks in the Snow?’ is both beautiful to read and look at and also teaches children about the different animal tracks they could encounter in the countryside. Illustrated by the author, Alexandra Milton, an artist who has exhibited around the world, in her unique collage style using layered papers and colours, each animal is delightfully represented on the page. The story follows a walk through a snow-covered meadow, encountering different animal tracks and discovering the animal who left them behind. Told in rhyming stanzas this reminded me of books like ‘The Gruffalo’ or ‘Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What do you See?’. As well as telling a charming story each animal is accompanied by a factual paragraph telling the reader how the animal moves and makes the prints, as well as other information about them such as their habitat, where they sleep, special features, etc. At the end of the book is a two-page spread of life-size tracks for children to use to identify any prints they may spot in real life. A great book for sharing and learning about animals in nature.

Ava has a very special cat that no one else can see! His name is Squishy McFluff and he loves going on adventures. Ava and Dad are off on their first-ever camping holiday and, of course, Squishy McFluff is going too. Dad tells Ava about the serious business of camping and they spend quite some time getting everything packed and ready. When they arrive, Dad is shocked to discover that the tent isn’t in the car. Ava and Squishy McFluff thought that building a den to sleep in would be much more fun!

Told through rhymes and bright illustrations, younger readers will love reading about Ava and Squishy McFluff’s camping adventures.

An appealing and informative illustrated book that follows the natural changes of a tree through the four seasons. Dotted with hidden animals scampering through cut paper holes, each page of Tree: Seasons Come, Seasons Go allows its reader to investigate and explore one tree’s rich and varied life cycle through seasonal change.

The story is about a little fir tree that is too small and too imperfect’ to be chosen to be decorated at Christmas time. He is different from the other trees around him and ever since being a sapling he knew it was “plain to see that I was never, ever going to be a perfect, grown-up tree.”

As families choose the other trees as Christmas trees, the little fir tree is left alone in the forest. Before long, the forest animals gather around the lonely little tree to offer festive cheer and encouragement that the creatures great and small appreciate him just as he is. The story ends with a happy springtime scene with the tree providing a home for forest animals and a shelter for two children reading their books, alongside the tree’s warm assertion that he is ‘the tree that’s meant to be.’ At every stage, Zommer’s beautiful illustrations are charming and filled with details and patterns that tell of the joys of looking closely at nature.

This is a hope-filled book with the natural world at its heart, cutting through the commercialism of the festive season to offer a gentle and encouraging message about celebrating difference and finding one’s place in the world.

This book is absolutely beautiful!  It is a tale of determination, hope, resilience and community.

Caryl Hart has written a story about a little girl who wants to make change happen. Determined to see the ‘great grey’ mountain turn back into the lush forest that it once was, the girl plants a seed from her fruit. When she returns later, she is disappointed that it has not taken at all. Under the watchful eye of her grandfather, she plants a variety of seeds and this time is determined to water them every day, and soon she sees results. Shoots turn in to saplings, and soon they are as big as she is! But how will she cope when a disaster strikes and her saplings are all destroyed in a fierce storm?  Just as the trees grow in the story, so the girl becomes a mother and grandmother thereafter. Her life of determination has brought about environmental change for the good of the community.

The story is brought to life by the illustrations of Anastasia Suvorova, with vibrant colours that reflect the hope and sunlight of the story.

A key feature of this book is the QR code on the inside sleeve. This gives the reader access to an audio version of the book. This is read beautifully by Willow Nash and includes a ‘ping’ for when to turn the page, enabling young children to look at the pictures while the book is being read to them.

Inspired by his father’s passion for trees, Ken Wilson-Max’s picturebook is a delightful introduction to conservation and care for the natural environment.

Eve is lively and thoughtful, living at the edge of a big, old forest. She loves everything about it, the trees most of all, especially the Baobab, the African “tree of life”. On her birthday, Eve and her parents visit Grandma, deep in the forest, where she gets a magical surprise. Unwrapping the bark from around a parcel that Grandma has carried to a special place, she finds a Baobab seedling to plant and take care of. Following family tradition, it will grow next to the trees that her father, grandma and great-grandma nurtured, connecting her forever with the forest she loves.

The bold, rich colours used to illustrate the book joyfully conjure the heat, the vibrant flowers and the many shades of green to be found in the forest.

This is perfect to share with Early Years and Key Stage 1 classes to help young children understand that everyone can play their part in preserving the natural world. Facts about trees are included are at the end, providing a good starting point for finding out more.

This is a fabulous book. The environmental message about the role of bugs in nature’s ecosystem is clear, creatively told and one that is desperately needed. Many children do not like bugs and creepy crawlies and some think nothing of squishing them if they come too close.

The end pages of this book are a good starting point for discussion with children – they are full of beautiful fruit pudding recipes that appear annotated in pen by the badger in the story. Teachers can ask children why they think these end pages have fruit recipes when the front cover of the book indicates it is all about bugs. By the end of the book, children will be clear of the importance of bugs in pollinating plants and allowing plants to grow and bear fruit that we can then eat and include in amazing desserts.

The illustrations in the book afford great discussion about the wildlife in the story and the interdependence of each with the environment. If you lift the book jacket, the inside is filled with pictures of different insects – all carefully drawn and labelled demonstrating the huge variety of bugs we have. If you the jacket off completely children will be amazed by the ‘second book cover’ that has a different book title altogether with the title ‘How to Cook Fruit: A Culinary Badger’s Guide to Preparing Gruit’ and you can see badger reading this book on the first page of the story. This can prompt lots of discussion about why the author decided to do this.

This is a fabulous book, for the story, the discussion it prompts about the environment and insects and also a consideration of the role of Emily Gravett’s choices about the layout and design of the book. A must!