Blurb

Look closer, look with care
And you may find a forest…

Among the steel and stone canyons of the city, nature flourishes in tiny, tenacious ways. Follow the ant (Iridomyrmex purpureus) to discover the scraps of wilderness hiding in plain sight in this lyrical celebration of urban flora and fauna.

The CBCA judges say...

Bartkowiak brings to life the title of this book in a very assured style with high-quality, hand-painted fine art illustrations. The tactile front cover and endpapers are incredibly appealing and tempt the reader to peer into the world described in the written text. The whimsical illustrations and confident use of design convey convincing scenes of the human world juxtaposed effectively with the often-unseen natural world. The reader is invited to zoom into the tiny details of the natural environment with plenty to explore on each page, including hunting for the tiny ant in each setting which keeps the reader engaged. Bartkowiak uses a sublime repeating technique of three rectangles which illustrate close, closer, closest. There is also a pleasing consistency in the use of colour with tiny glimpses of pink on the gum blossoms, the gum nuts and later on a leaf tip.

The Reading Time reviewers say...

Read the Reading Time review Naturopolis.

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