Herbaria: A Guide for Young People

by Kelly La Farge

What good is a dead plant? A lot! Herbaria , a picture book for grades one through eight, explains why, leading readers on an accessible, engaging exploration of who loves dead plants—and why. In these pages, we learn about famous historical plant collectors and the paths they established investigating plants. Readers join today’s field botanists as they go far and wide to discover new species, and we get to look in the herbarium at how specimens are mounted and organized for everyone to use and enjoy. The book as a whole helps kids to visualize themselves as botanists gathering, preserving, and unlocking the mysteries of plants. In addition to beautiful watercolor illustrations and photos, the book includes interactive features such as lift-a-flaps, overlays, and a foldout.

34 pages, Hardcover

Published March 19, 2021

Reviews

[Janet · Rating 4 out of 5]

Kelly LaFarge’s Herbaria: A Guide for Young People, is a delight. Written for youngsters, it’s published by Missouri Botanical Garden Press but is a far cry from MoBot’s usual print runs of scientific publications. Herbaria demystifies the herbarium's role as a museum of dried plant specimens. LaFarge outlines what herbaria are used for, who uses them, and how and where plants are collected and stored in one of the world's 3,990 herbaria housing more than 350,000,000 plant specimens. Herbaria are storehouses of essential, irreplaceable information about the plant world over time. The first herbarium and botanical garden was established in 1543 in Pisa, Italy, codifying the practice of drying and storing plant specimens for year-round study. Missouri’s herbarium has specimens from Darwin’s 1831 Voyage of the Beagle, and Philadelphia’s Academy of Natural Sciences herbarium houses plants collected on the 1804-06 Lewis & Clark Expedition.

LaFarge writes in a clear, accessible style with engaging illustrations and photography throughout. Even better, she uses flap prints, an interactive print technique going back to the Renaissance, in which the reader is invited to lift a flap to see what lies beneath – to “see” what is inside a field notebook or a plant press or a storage unit. While this 33-page book is geared toward youngsters, adults, especially those who’ve never heard of herbaria (which is pretty much anyone who has never worked in a natural history museum or botanical garden) will be intrigued as well. Atlas Obscura fans, take note.

[Kristy · Rating 2 out of 5]

On one hand I wish I’d had this book, or rather one like it, as a kid. As into plants as I am as a 45 year old, I am not well versed in the study of them and I am catching up as an adult. I didn’t even know what an herbarium was, so I learned quite a bit from this little book. The photos and drawings are delightful. But for a book that’s supposed to cover the study of plants allll over the world, there’s zero mention of plants let alone herbariums in Africa or Asia. It’s completely euro-centric in its scope, although it does graze over central and South America. There’s a quote listed as a “Native American proverb” as if that covers who said it, they’re all one culture. Colonizers are referenced with reverence. The “factoids” have no sources and are contradictory. I’d love to see a revision, or a version by someone approaching it in a more worldly view.

[Susan Eubank · Rating 5 out of 5]

Received the Award of Excellence for Children & Young Adults from the Council on Botanical and Horticultural Libraries Annual Literature Award.

It truly made the work of herbaria interesting and fun for all.

[Christine · Rating 5 out of 5]

A wonderful NF book for children and adults who love learning about plants. Highly recommend for educators and parents who teach children about botany.