Above, Below and Long Ago: Animals, plants and fossils in unseen places

by Michael Bright, Jonathan Emmerson (Illustrator)

Produced with the Natural History Museum, this book brings you closer to the wildlife that's hard to reach - to the animals and plants in the skies, deep underwater, on clifftops, in caves and underground. Find out how plants and animals adapted to these environments and about wildlife from long ago. Filled with stylish linocut prints of wildlife, this is a book you will admire for its beauty as well as for the fascinating information inside.

Discover the snow leopard as it hunts mountain goats and sheep, the ghostly pale, eel-shaped olm and a mysterious orchid that only blooms underground.

With gorgeous linocut prints, this beautiful book reveals the textures and patterns of the natural world.

Genres: Nonfiction, Animals, Picture Books

65 pages, Kindle Edition

First published October 13, 2022

Reviews

[Alicia · Rating 4 out of 5]

The organization of the book profiling animals, plants, and fossils moving from above (which doesn't include just the sky) but a particular mouse that as a mammal lives higher than any other mammal on the planet. Then do animals below which includes locations like caves before moving into items from long ago including fossils but that could have been from above or below. So while not organizationally confused based on the title, it does provide a little whiplash about where a reader is in history or where in the world, but it's not a detriment as much as an observation.

Otherwise, it's a neat nonfiction book featuring flora and fauna that most people will never see (because few people get to travel in a vessel to the Mariana Trench or swim eons ago with a megalodon).

I like the muted colors in the illustration choices and the understandable paragraph form for each entry highlighting a few details worth knowing and squirreling away when you need a fact at a cocktail party.

[Rachel · Rating 3 out of 5]

Took me a minute to figure out what this book was really about. It showcases animals that hide/live in the skies above, below us or are from long ago. The illustrations area amazing. They use printmaking techniques which help to show the creatures. I can see kids into odd animals being into this.