Blue and Green Ark

Our Earth is the Blue and Green Ark adrift in the dark. This alphabet book is poetic, rich in imagry and ideas for conservation, respect for life and the environment. The lyric language, imaginative illustrations and striking juxtaposition of content worthy of further reflection will intrigue most readers and touch many more with a reverence for nature.

Winner of the English Association's English 4-11 Award for the Best Children's Picture Book of 1999 - Non-Fiction Key Stage 2. We considered the scope and imaginative power of this work to be quite exceptional. Brian Patten takes each letter of the alphabet, presented by Sian Bailey as a work of art, in the fashion of the key letter of a medieval manuscript, and explores fascinating aspects of our planet from the origins of the earth to the development of the child in the womb. In free verse and with the help of 11 gifted artists he evokes images of the creatures in the oceans, on land and in the sky, of features of the earth like rain forests and volcanoes, of the planets and the stars in the heavens and of the technological achievements of human beings. This exploration in poetic language of such wide ranging phenomena make the book a wonderful celebration of our world for the new millennium. It also reinforces the notion that non-fiction can make a strong appeal to the imagination and can be the beginning of the reader's further investigation of concepts and topics. Further help here comes in the form of an exceptionally fine glossary with a scholarly flavour. Readers of different ages will be inspired by this highly original and informative book and will return to it again and again.