Myke Mollard has a passion for nature, having written numerous books to inspire and inform young readers about the animals and plants living around them now and millions of year before. This addition to his growing library looks at the tiniest of living things to the most ginormous.
We’ll need the microscope to find myriad of creatures like amoebas, copepods, golden algae, ostracods and many more that can been seen in a single drop of water. We’ll squirm over all sorts of different types of worms. Did you know Giant Gippsland worms average one metre in length? Or that ants can carry up to 50 times their own weight? Ants are very important pollinators and tidy up by hoovering up dead plants and animals. Cathedral termites build mounds 4-9 metres tall! We go on to meet iconic Australian animals we all know but also many we don’t who lived millions of years ago, like the Giant Chidna.
There’s ‘fancy flora’ including the two-metre-tall Corpse flower, native to Indonesia. Phew, it’s stinky, smelling like rotting flesh.But that’s good as it attracts pollinators. There are macropods, dinosaurs, the world’s biggest fish, and towering trees.
Mollard is a talented illustrator and the book is jam-packed full of his drawings coupled with fascinating information all around its busy pages.
A great book for budding naturalists.
Reviewed by Jane Stephens
Age Guide 7+
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Myke Mollard is a children’s educator, illustrator, author and designer. He began his career in graphic design, branding management and producing commercials for TV. He later found outlets for his passion for educating kids about the world around them, both in person in classroom and online settings, and via his books which he fully writes and illustrates himself.
One of his first books, in 2008, was the bestselling A-Z of Australian Bush Creatures.
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