BOOK REVIEW – The Visitor 281 April 2007, pages 57-58
Kids’ Kew
Miranda MacQuitty
A guided tour around the exciting world of Kew
Young explorers aged 7 to 11 can now plan their adventure around the Royal
Botanic Gardens, Kew all by themselves, with the help of cartoon friends
Caterpillar, Badger, Harvest Mouse and Sticker the sundew, in the shiny new
book – Kids’ Kew, a children’s guide. This fabulous new guide book is bright
and busy, packed full of colourful photographs, beautiful illustrations, a fold
out map, and information that can add an amazing edge to your family day
out. It describes all that Kew has to offer for children, ranging from the
beautiful, spacious gardens to the exotic glasshouses and the plants that live
here.
Kids can discover all kinds of plants in the Gardens, including ones that
dinosaurs liked to eat plants that eat insects and trees that have to be kept
behind bars to protect them! They can also marvel at the awesome
architecture ranging from the royal Kew Palace, traditional Japanese Minka
House, to the pioneering and sustainable Alpine House. There are plants from
all over the world in the glasshouses; children can explore the jungle of the
Palm House, travel back three-and-a-half billion years in the Evolution House
and squirm at the carnivorous plants of the Princess of Wales Conservatory.
This interesting and informative guide also looks at the seasons at Kew, so
visitors can watch the Gardens changing throughout the year. This section
includes wildlife you might see, and gardening tips for children of all ages.
Get active and have fun learning about plants!
The guide has been created to keep children entertained whilst teaching them
about the importance of plants. It uses interactive methods to keep young
minds active, including fun activities (colouring in, join the dots, spot the
difference, quizzes and crosswords), amazing facts and silly jokes – told by
the in-house comedian, Snail! There are also sixty stickers to help kids search
and keep track of plants that have been specially labelled in the Gardens. The
book also tells fascinating stories about these plants and their uses.
Discover the important science and conservation that goes on at Kew
As well as being a fun and interactive way to look around the Gardens, Kids’
Kew also carries an important message about how Kew helps to preserve
plants for the future. It teaches children about projects that help save plants in
the wild; from working with local people to plant trees in South America, to
collecting seeds and returning plants to their habitats. The guide contains
historic, cultural and scientific facts about plants, such as their medicinal
properties and role in traditional remedies as well as in modern day drugs
used to treat life-threatening diseases. Kids can read about the people who
work in the Gardens to nurture the plants, and plant-hunters past and present
who have travelled the world in order to build the collections and contribute to
global plant conservation. Although Kids’ Kew is designed for use by families
it covers many themes and topics included in the national curriculum for
schools (key stage 2), so will be useful to school parties and their teachers.
Take action at home
With this sparkling new guide book, the adventure doesn’t stop when the
Gardens close for the night. Kids can take their book home as a reminder of a
brilliant adventure and continue to use it to make their home more plant
friendly and to help the environment.