Dawn Casey - Happy Stories for Nature Lovers

Dawn Casey

Domenique Serfontein

HEY, this book was a REALLY GOOD CHOICE!

Not just because its a GREAT BOOK (of course wed say that), but because it is PRINTED ON RECYCLED PAPER made from 100% post-consumer waste. Turning a tree into new paper uses a lot of energy, water, and chemicals. But turning waste paper into fresh paper again uses far fewer resources.

This PLANET-FRIENDLY way of making books costs more, so why did we bother? Because at Ivy Kids we know that our young readers will inherit the world we create today, and we think those children want a HAPPY, HEALTHY PLANET (as well as awesome books to read).

WE HOPE YOU ENJOY IT!

In nature, everything is connected. Around the world, many people believe the web of life is sacred. They feel it in their bodies, their bellies, and their bones, through their love for animals, plants, and trees. Perhaps you feel this love for nature, too?

And so, many of us feel sadness and anger, about the many losses that have happened in nature, including the loss of animals and their habitats. These feelings can be uncomfortable, but they are a normal, healthy way to be when we see or hear about these things.

There are many healthy ways to allow and express our emotionstalk to someone, write, dance, or make art or music.

Feeling our emotions can help us take action.

My sadness about plastic pollution inspires me to use paper bags, willow baskets and woolen clothes. These biodegradable alternatives will break up and decompose back into the earth in a short amount of time, unlike plastic.

Spend time in nature. In every moment, nature offers us gifts that lift our spirits and soothe our soulsbirdsong, dappled leaves, bright berries, sunsets. Know that you are part of the family of nature, connected to all life. We belong here, and we are not alone.

So, befriend a bug. Sit with a stream. Talk to a tree.

Right now, nature is calling out for our loving attention.

And more and more of us are answering the callsharing our gifts to help nature thrive. People all around the world are giving their time, creativity, and care to make a more beautiful, healthy, peaceful world.

This book shares just a handful of these stories.

Much more is also happening. Someone who loves food is growing their own vegetables. Someone who loves clothes is holding sewing classes and swapping clothes with friends instead of buying new ones.

Someone who loves surfing is cleaning a beach. Perhaps you are doing some of these things, too?

A wise environmentalist called Joanna Macy talks about the big changes that are happening now, with more and more people paying attention and taking action in response to natures needs. She calls this shift The Great Turning. Things are changing. The Great Turning has begun.

I invite you to imagine a beautiful, healthy world full with life.

Let your dreams guide your actions, and dare to hope.

Dawn Casey

Once there was a girl who loved trees.

Anna loved to sit in the branches of the old apple tree, talking to the birds, and singing. It was a special place, where you could dream among the blossom and the bees.

In every season, the tree was generous with its giftsspring beauty, summer shade, fall apples, and firewood to warm the winter cold.

When Anna grew up, she became a Forest School teacher.

She kept on learning about the trees, and all their gifts.

Willow gave shoots to weave a basket.

Elder gave wood to make a whistle.

Beech gave leaves to make a bed.

Birch gave bark to light a fire.

Anna saw that not only the trees, but all the creatures of the forest had gifts and different roles in the natural world.

Squirrels helped plant oaks.

Bees pollinated flowers.

Trees gave us fresh air.

It was like one family, all helping each other.

She understood that we humans are part of nature.

We all have different gifts: listening ears, seeing eyes, nimble fingers.

We have a feeling heart and the ability to imagine and create. Anna began to wonder... what is our role in the family of nature?

One day, as Anna and her class gathered acorns in the forest, it came to her that they could plant them. Just like the birds, the animals and the winds, they too could help trees seeds to grow.

Anna saw the future of the forest. She saw the ancient woodlands, ringing with birdsong in the spring, humming with insects in the summer, bursting with bright mushrooms in the fall, while badgers curled up with their cubs in winter-dens. She saw a healthy, living land where the children of all creatures thrive.

When Anna shared her dream, she discovered the same dream in other peoples hearts!

Together, they created The Childrens Forest project to help children grow, plant, and tend trees.

With every tree they plant, the children also plant their own wishes for the world, written on scrolls of birch-bark paper.

They sing to the trees to help them grow. Like seeds in the earth, like stars in the dark, the childrens wishes shine.

Two hundred years from now, the seeds will have grown into ancient forests.

The children will have grandchildren of their own. And those children will look back upon our generation as their ancestorsthe ones who remembered again our place in the family of nature and our role in tending to the natural world.

The long arm of the jetty stretched out into the ocean.

Joe and Grandpa sat there, waiting. Grandpa said you need patience to see the whales. As he waited, Joe played with the wooden fish that Grandpa had made for him from a piece of driftwood theyd found on the beach.

As he turned the fish in his hands, he remembered what Grandpa had told him.

How, for hundreds of years, whales were hunted, their meat sold for pet food, their bones boiled for glue, and their fat used for soap.

By the time I was a boy, Grandpa had said, humpbacks were almost gone.

Once, at bedtime, Grandpa had played Joe a recording of humpback whales singing. Joe had drifted off to sleep on a wave of sound.