{"id":334,"date":"2022-07-24T19:36:09","date_gmt":"2022-07-24T19:36:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/home-ed-in-a-shed.blog\/?p=334"},"modified":"2022-07-24T19:36:13","modified_gmt":"2022-07-24T19:36:13","slug":"third-book-review","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/home-ed-in-a-shed.blog\/?p=334","title":{"rendered":"Third book review"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Hey Blog! Wow, this summer is busy! It\u2019s also had some late evenings, which is great (apart from me being too grumpy to get on with my lessons the next morning) as sometimes you see things which you don\u2019t in the day \u2013 especially if it\u2019s wildlife watching!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">On Friday last week we went badger-watching in a local Wildlife Trust reserve. It was around 9 o\u2019clock before the badgers came out, but we saw either two or possibly three of them! I hope they enjoyed the handfuls of peanuts that we had put out for them. On Sunday we travelled to a different reserve in anticipation of glow-worms, really insects, where the females are flightless and their abdomen glows, while the males fly around, attracted to the light. Unfortunately we didn\u2019t have quite so good luck that time (Badgers on Friday \u2013 2, Glow-worms on Sunday \u2013 nil)!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">You may be wondering what all this has to do with a book review. Well, the link is nature, as the book I am reviewing today is <em>Diary of a Young Naturalist<\/em>, by the Young Naturalist himself, Dara McAnulty. It is quite a recent book, only published in 2020, but has already won several awards for its stand-out, beautifully worded, and passionate information. The nature activist and TV presenter Chris Packham has described it as \u201creally, really special,\u201d which shows you what a good book it is!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The diary, which is split into the four seasons, details a year of difficulty, hope, and of course, wonderful, magnificent wildlife! It was written in 2019 and covers Dara\u2019s 14<sup>th<\/sup> year, a year of upheaval \u2013 the McAnultys moved house, school, and natural surroundings, which made Dara feel overwhelmed by the clutter of packing boxes and new, different smells; it was also the year Dara felt his first sparks of activism for nature coming through.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The book is mainly about Dara\u2019s encounters with the natural world. These range from travelling to Scotland to look for goshawks, to observing birds at his garden bird table. He also details a visit to Rathlin Island where he watched puffins, gannets and other seabirds, and at home he remembers finding frog spawn in the garden pond. At his new home he details time spent sitting in a hammock in the garden, where he says he can find time to think and concentrate on what his social life and ordinary life are throwing at him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Dara writes in a unique style, described by some as \u201cpoetic prose\u201d which demonstrates exactly how it feels \u2013 though it\u2019s prose, it has stunning poetic imagery and texture. Most books just stop at 2D imagery, but Dara goes deeper, into 3D and then detailing what happens over time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Dara says in the book he feels like an imposter: \u201cJust one single act of walking out and I\u2019ve been crowned,\u201d he says, meaning he doesn\u2019t feel he deserves all the praise for his championing nature. However I think that it\u2019s that act of choosing to walk out for nature that is all too rare, which makes it even more valuable. I think he probably feels like it shouldn\u2019t be necessary to praise the few who do this, it should be more like something everyone should be ready to do.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Dara is autistic, and so is the rest of his family apart from his dad. Dara explains that he sees the world intensely, and this provides a vibrant and extremely emotive background for the story. It seems that so many of our nature activists have that strength a feeling \u00a0\u2013 a need to preserve what we have, to keep connected to where we come from. I do not have a diagnosis of autism, but sometimes I think my brain works in a slightly different way to most people, and I can really connect to what Dara writes. I feel that same sense of, \u201cWhat can we do? <em>I<\/em> am only one person, and the entirety that one person can do is inspire others to help them, until there are enough people to complete the task.\u201d I feel a real thrill that nature is alive and there to explore. Does a tree forget its roots? No, of course not. So why should we forget our roots, our history of being part of nature? In fact, why should we think being part of nature is history? It is now! It is nature that will always be able to win through, nature that will enable us to combat the climate crisis and other problems; solving nature will be the first step in getting to a solution.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">It doesn\u2019t matter who you are \u2013 from a professor in an office block to a hermit in the arctic tundra to a boy writing a blog at his desk in Derbyshire, I think we all should be ready to read this book at some point in our lives! It lets you feel \u2013 as if you\u2019ve suddenly stepped into the autistic, determined, and fizzing-over-the-top brain of Dara, whose life is shared through the book. It\u2019s the kind of book you need to read, as surely as evolution will carry on through the years. A book of seeking, finding, hope, despair, and interconnectivity with nature.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">If you want to find out more about Dara, go to <a href=\"https:\/\/daramcanulty.com\">https:\/\/daramcanulty.com<\/a>, where you can find out all about him, his book, and his blog Naturalist Dara, which he did before writing the book \u2013 should I write a book too?!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Hey Blog! Wow, this summer is busy! It\u2019s also had some late evenings, which is great (apart from me being too grumpy to get on with my lessons the next morning) as sometimes you see things which you don\u2019t in the day \u2013 especially if it\u2019s wildlife watching! On Friday last week we went badger-watching [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-334","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-home-ed-in-a-shed-2"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v28.7 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Third book review - Home Ed in a Shed<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Third book review - Home Ed in a Shed\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Hey Blog! Wow, this summer is busy! It\u2019s also had some late evenings, which is great (apart from me being too grumpy to get on with my lessons the next morning) as sometimes you see things which you don\u2019t in the day \u2013 especially if it\u2019s wildlife watching! On Friday last week we went badger-watching [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/home-ed-in-a-shed.blog\/?p=334\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Home Ed in a Shed\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2022-07-24T19:36:09+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2022-07-24T19:36:13+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"KB\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"KB\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Estimated reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/home-ed-in-a-shed.blog\\\/?p=334#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/home-ed-in-a-shed.blog\\\/?p=334\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"KB\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/home-ed-in-a-shed.blog\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/ac813c37cdba573d01d0cd61ac8f1523\"},\"headline\":\"Third book review\",\"datePublished\":\"2022-07-24T19:36:09+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2022-07-24T19:36:13+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/home-ed-in-a-shed.blog\\\/?p=334\"},\"wordCount\":920,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/home-ed-in-a-shed.blog\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/ac813c37cdba573d01d0cd61ac8f1523\"},\"articleSection\":[\"home ed in a shed\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/home-ed-in-a-shed.blog\\\/?p=334\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/home-ed-in-a-shed.blog\\\/?p=334\",\"name\":\"Third book review - Home Ed in a Shed\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/home-ed-in-a-shed.blog\\\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2022-07-24T19:36:09+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2022-07-24T19:36:13+00:00\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/home-ed-in-a-shed.blog\\\/?p=334#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/home-ed-in-a-shed.blog\\\/?p=334\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/home-ed-in-a-shed.blog\\\/?p=334#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\\\/\\\/home-ed-in-a-shed.blog\\\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Third book review\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/home-ed-in-a-shed.blog\\\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/home-ed-in-a-shed.blog\\\/\",\"name\":\"Home Ed in a Shed\",\"description\":\"My home education adventures\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/home-ed-in-a-shed.blog\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/ac813c37cdba573d01d0cd61ac8f1523\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\\\/\\\/home-ed-in-a-shed.blog\\\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\"},{\"@type\":[\"Person\",\"Organization\"],\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/home-ed-in-a-shed.blog\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/ac813c37cdba573d01d0cd61ac8f1523\",\"name\":\"KB\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/6793d4dd381c32a0924a347266a7ccd468025e7b642f26f67835a2a7cf4f7071?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/6793d4dd381c32a0924a347266a7ccd468025e7b642f26f67835a2a7cf4f7071?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/6793d4dd381c32a0924a347266a7ccd468025e7b642f26f67835a2a7cf4f7071?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"KB\"},\"logo\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/6793d4dd381c32a0924a347266a7ccd468025e7b642f26f67835a2a7cf4f7071?s=96&d=mm&r=g\"}}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Third book review - Home Ed in a Shed","robots":{"index":"noindex","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"og_locale":"en_GB","og_type":"article","og_title":"Third book review - Home Ed in a Shed","og_description":"Hey Blog! Wow, this summer is busy! It\u2019s also had some late evenings, which is great (apart from me being too grumpy to get on with my lessons the next morning) as sometimes you see things which you don\u2019t in the day \u2013 especially if it\u2019s wildlife watching! On Friday last week we went badger-watching [&hellip;]","og_url":"https:\/\/home-ed-in-a-shed.blog\/?p=334","og_site_name":"Home Ed in a Shed","article_published_time":"2022-07-24T19:36:09+00:00","article_modified_time":"2022-07-24T19:36:13+00:00","author":"KB","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"KB","Estimated reading time":"4 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/home-ed-in-a-shed.blog\/?p=334#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/home-ed-in-a-shed.blog\/?p=334"},"author":{"name":"KB","@id":"https:\/\/home-ed-in-a-shed.blog\/#\/schema\/person\/ac813c37cdba573d01d0cd61ac8f1523"},"headline":"Third book review","datePublished":"2022-07-24T19:36:09+00:00","dateModified":"2022-07-24T19:36:13+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/home-ed-in-a-shed.blog\/?p=334"},"wordCount":920,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/home-ed-in-a-shed.blog\/#\/schema\/person\/ac813c37cdba573d01d0cd61ac8f1523"},"articleSection":["home ed in a shed"],"inLanguage":"en-GB"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/home-ed-in-a-shed.blog\/?p=334","url":"https:\/\/home-ed-in-a-shed.blog\/?p=334","name":"Third book review - Home Ed in a Shed","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/home-ed-in-a-shed.blog\/#website"},"datePublished":"2022-07-24T19:36:09+00:00","dateModified":"2022-07-24T19:36:13+00:00","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/home-ed-in-a-shed.blog\/?p=334#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-GB","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/home-ed-in-a-shed.blog\/?p=334"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/home-ed-in-a-shed.blog\/?p=334#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/home-ed-in-a-shed.blog\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Third book review"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/home-ed-in-a-shed.blog\/#website","url":"https:\/\/home-ed-in-a-shed.blog\/","name":"Home Ed in a Shed","description":"My home education adventures","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/home-ed-in-a-shed.blog\/#\/schema\/person\/ac813c37cdba573d01d0cd61ac8f1523"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/home-ed-in-a-shed.blog\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-GB"},{"@type":["Person","Organization"],"@id":"https:\/\/home-ed-in-a-shed.blog\/#\/schema\/person\/ac813c37cdba573d01d0cd61ac8f1523","name":"KB","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-GB","@id":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/6793d4dd381c32a0924a347266a7ccd468025e7b642f26f67835a2a7cf4f7071?s=96&d=mm&r=g","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/6793d4dd381c32a0924a347266a7ccd468025e7b642f26f67835a2a7cf4f7071?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/6793d4dd381c32a0924a347266a7ccd468025e7b642f26f67835a2a7cf4f7071?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"KB"},"logo":{"@id":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/6793d4dd381c32a0924a347266a7ccd468025e7b642f26f67835a2a7cf4f7071?s=96&d=mm&r=g"}}]}},"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/home-ed-in-a-shed.blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/334","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/home-ed-in-a-shed.blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/home-ed-in-a-shed.blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/home-ed-in-a-shed.blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/home-ed-in-a-shed.blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=334"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/home-ed-in-a-shed.blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/334\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":336,"href":"https:\/\/home-ed-in-a-shed.blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/334\/revisions\/336"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/home-ed-in-a-shed.blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=334"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/home-ed-in-a-shed.blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=334"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/home-ed-in-a-shed.blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=334"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}