Go Wild

MY THOUGHTS

A little bit of this and a little bit of that, toss them all in, season with sweet, spice and everything nice and you have yourself a mixed bag, an assortment, a wonderful coming together of writers and illustrators to make an all-around awesome book on nature and the environment that is sure to engage readers. 

That’s what I loved about Go Wild: Stories, Essays, and Comics that Celebrate our Earth. Edited by certified climate worrier, Bijal Vachharajani, this book will never suffer from the ‘Need-a-break-must put-down’ syndrome or the ‘distracted and discarded’ syndrome because there is something new and exciting on every page. 

A brilliant crop of stories from Aparna Kapur’s The Birthday Present, a short story cycle that will make you think, to Shabnam Minwalla’s The Banyan Tree of BD Kelkar Road which will seem awfully familiar to anyone living in big cities. Heartfelt stories by Yuvan Aves and Priya Kuriyan (in their distinct styles) of how nature heals. From pictures of all the places Salil Chaturvedi’s wheelchair likes to go to Lavanya Karthik’s whimsical tale of pigeons choosing her (and her home) for their family. From Zai Whitaker’s poem of banishing plastic to Rajiv Eipe’s effort to introduce us to lesser-known members of the Mantidae family — this book has something for every nature lover and eco warrior. 

What struck me the most was this book doesn’t preach, it nudges the reader gently to look at different aspects of nature around them. Things urban kids tend to overlook or take for granted. It asks the reader to slow down and soak it all in, to find beauty even in an urban jungle. To nurture a tiny patch of green by bringing a plant into your life or caring for a tree outside. Whatever the reader takes away from it, this book which can be read from anywhere, is the perfect way to Get Wild.