Two intrepid librarians

Two intrepid librarians review the best nonfiction books for children

Monday, December 4, 2017

Many: The Diversity of Life on Earth by Nicola Davies



Many: The Diversity of Life on Earth
Nicola Davies; Illustrated by Emily Sutton
Candlewick Press. 2017
ISBN: 9780763694838

Note: While Cathy is on Sabbatical, Louise is writing all the reviews. Cathy will return March, 2018.

Everywhere you look, from big things like elephants to small things like mushrooms, our planet is teaming with life. We can start counting with one, but keep on counting and we get many species. In this engaging informational picture book, Davies explores the many different kinds of living things that live on Earth and how we are all dependent on one another for survival.

Each double-page spread has folk art style illustrations rendered in watercolor that mirror the simple narrative that is perfect for reading aloud. Some spreads offer captions of more detailed information in a smaller italicized font.  

Woven into the narrative is the message that it is up to us, humans, to save our world. “Human beings are part of the pattern, too, and we need to make sure it stays big, beautiful, and complicated…because we could not keep living on Earth if we had to count down instead of up…from MANY to one.


A perfect companion to Davies and Sutton’s earlier work, Tiny Creatures: the World of Microbes. Pair these with the Sunlight series by Molly Bang and Penny Chisholm.

To write this review, I borrowed a copy of the book from my local public library.

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