Unlock the Magic of Nature: Robert MacFarlane's The Lost Spells

Pat: There is a ribbon inserted in the book for a book marker

I bought this for a gift but am ordering another one for myself!

United States on Dec 07, 2023

LR: A beautiful little book. I have bought three (so far) to give away.

United Kingdom on Nov 28, 2023

C. Chapman: Illustrations are wonderful. No issues with the books. Wonderful poetry for all ages

United States on Oct 31, 2023

Carol A. Von Stubbe: This book is magic, plain and simple. From the writing to the art, it is one of the loveliest books I own.
Good for all ages. I pick it up, even for just a few minutes, to feel better about the world.

United States on Oct 08, 2023

shilpa manoch: This book is nice and looks better without the paper cover

India on Aug 18, 2023

KP: beau livre, parfait cadeau

France on Aug 04, 2023

Orcalove=Locavore: This is an element in a whole ecosystem. I love them all, both the idea and the execution. The idea behind the books and music is the loss, to the upcoming generations of children, of important words for creatures and plants made rare (some of them, anyhow) by development and ecosystem destruction, and by the technological splitting of kids from the natural world. But that's just the backstory. Robert Macfarlane is a superb UK nature writer, and the illustrator is amazing. This little book of poems is compact and suitable for an adult or for an older, reading child to enjoy on their own or for a younger child to have read to them. It's witty and clever, but gently and subtly. Each is about a single creature or plant. The same idea, but different poems is available in a larger format book, and there are companion musical albums (Spell Songs and Spell Songs II) featuring singer-songwriter Karine Polwart, Julie Fowlis, and many others. Check out The Lost Words Blessing, a popular track on my streaming service, for an impression of the sensibilities of this book, though not by the same writer.

United States on May 11, 2023

Ronalie James: I gave a copy of this book and its larger companion Lost Words to my daughter. She described it as a symphony for the eyes and mind and said that the beauty of this book brought her to tears. If you or whomever you are buying this for loves birds/nature and poetry this is your book!

Canada on Apr 16, 2023

Regina C: Me encantó. Llegó un poco antes de lo esperado, la calidad es excelente y el precio también. Vale mucho la pena.

Mexico on Dec 27, 2021

Elise MatichElise Matich: Have you ever danced a folk waltz? With someone who knows how? Floating, flying, fleeting—fantastic. Opening The Lost Spells is like stepping into a room of flannel-clad strangers who dance like gods. It is a book of what was once called poetry: words that conjure meaning through our ears’ encounter with their sounds. These new “spells to be spoken aloud,” urge us to wonder at real, half-forgotten things, like egrets and oaks, swifts and silver birches, and the sound of spoken rhymes. They invite us to stray into a fading world that is steeped in the spirituality of physical experience.

Naturalist-writer Robert Macfarlane and artist Jackie Morris crafted their 2017 The Lost Words in response to the removal of such terms as “acorn,” “wren,” and “dandelion” from a popular juvenile dictionary. The astonishingly beautiful, oversized volume weaves watercolor with verse to protest our blindness to the wild things around us. A diminutive companion to The Lost Words, The Lost Spells continues to plumb what Macfarlane calls “loss—of language, species, loved places—[which] is the tune of the times.”

Knowing and naming nature demands physical...

United States on Nov 04, 2020