Tales from Mother Earth
Hello, my name is Jenny!
As a mother of two boys (11 and 9 years) and living in Ashford, Kent, I am very aware of the importance of conservation and doing all we can to nurture and encourage the next generation.
My love of nature started as a child when I was exposed to and learned to treasure wildlife, marvelling in its diversity, beauty and accessibility. It was something I wanted to share with my own children. So as soon as I could I started to teach them about nature, the animals and insects within the natural world and the simple pleasures of walking in forests, woods, beaches and the countryside and what you can discover literally under your feet! We get outside whenever we can and also enjoy watching the many programmes on television increasing our knowledge and love of wildlife across the globe.
In Spring of 2019, when I heard Sir David Attenborough make a shocking statement about our natural world, I felt compelled to help in whatever way I could. It shocked and saddened me to think that our natural world is in so much trouble, and we seem to be sleepwalking towards a very uncertain future indeed. Added to this, a few months later a UN report emerged highlighting the global decline in the number of insects and this was another catalyst for me.
We were already recycling and doing what we could, but I increased my efforts further by organising beach cleans with my two young boys and friends. We went out on regular litter picking trips with our grabbers, continued feeding the birds and planted native plants in the woodland. I also encouraged the building I worked in at the time to participate in the Walkers crisp recycling scheme, planted copious amounts of lavender in my garden for the bees and insects, let an area of my garden grow wild and built a bug hotel etc.. but this for me was still not enough!
In June of last year, whilst speaking to my friend, an idea came to us which has developed into ‘Tales from Mother Earth’. A way of helping to educate children and reconnect them with the natural world by empowering them to help. We both acknowledged that we needed to educate the younger generation and decided that engaging primary school aged children would be perfect for our venture.
Our ambition was to create a series of realistic and touching animal/insect children's picture and audio books that can appeal to a wide age range (3-10 years) and abilities, highlighting the current threats our wildlife is facing from erosion of natural habitat, climate change and plastic pollution which children can read and continue to engage with as they grow.
From our initial idea we quickly learnt that we needed to form a collaborative team of like-minded passionate and talented individuals that believed in our objective. We were delighted when Emily our illustrator agreed to join us, likewise with Duane our story editor and then Chris our composer completed our gifted team of five. With our colleagues in place, we knew each one of us was passionate about developing young minds regarding conservation and helping children understand how their actions, no matter how small, can make an impact for good. From this point we started working on ‘Phebe the Bee’ our first story.
We had the narrative and knew what we wanted to achieve. Now was the time to add all the extra elements which would enhance the ‘Tales from Mother Earth’ brand. Right from the start it was our intention to have a strong conservation message and tips of how the reader/children could become involved. We worked on these details and were delighted with the results when our first book came together.
‘Phoebe the Bee’ is an educational tale about a worker bee who through her courage and determination manages to save the hive and her family when her natural environment is threatened by modern development. Each book contains the illustrated story with beautiful realistic images, a puzzle page, a fun facts page on the featured animal/insect, a colouring in page and the conservation action tips where the reader(s) can get involved and help directly.
A page from our website where we’ve included some of the conservation tips
https://talesfrommotherearth.co.uk/you-can-help/
Then on the CD, Mother Earth narrates the full story with conservation actions tips, a read along version and two pieces of our specially composed music. Phoebe’s Theme is a buzzy, light and warm tune that allows children to dance around pretending to be Bees and the other piece of music is a lullaby that relaxes and settles children down to rest.
With our prototype of ‘Phoebe the Bee’ in hand, we ventured out to families, nurseries and wildlife centres during the month of November and December 2019 in Kent and the surrounding area. We needed to know what people thought of our venture, our story and the TfME concept. The results were staggering. From nursery children, to the children of friends, to school classes and the wildlife centres, Phoebe was a hit - they loved the story, the images, the music and Mother Earth! Around that time, it was also declared that bees are the most important living species on the planet (Royal Geographical Society of London, January 2020) which re-affirmed to us that we’d started something special.
We self-published our book and launched in March, we were waiting for the right time and spring, of course. We launched with several primary school assemblies, wildlife centre days and creative story workshops at garden centres/farms etc. Sadly, due to the outbreak of Covid-19, understandably our further planned events had to be postponed… for now.
Having seen our book, The British Wildlife Centre were very supportive of our mission, as was Chris Packham, the Broadcaster, Environmentalist and Author who have both provided their support which features on the back of the book.
Already ‘Tales from Mother Earth’ is having a positive impact – not least with children who were once scared of bees, no longer being so! They understand what bees are trying to do and now know to let them. Children have built bug houses, planted bee friendly flowers and left out saucers of water – which will undoubtedly help.
When we take time out and connect with nature, it is hard to overstate how much good nature does for our psychological and physical health. For children, the benefits increase further as their levels of concentration, creativity, confidence, happiness and wellbeing rise. There is no place like the outdoors!
Now three months on we are collaborating with many like-minded organisations and individuals. We are all on the same team, working towards a better outcome for the conservation of our wildlife and the education of our children. Our journey has only just started. We have seven books in our first series of stories (Tales from the Countryside) with plans for so many more to come. We are hoping to launch our second book Spike the Hedgehog later this year.
‘Phoebe the Bee’ book is priced at £11.99 +p&p from our website and we have been excited to receive orders from all around the world. Please view our website for more information. Only by collaborating can we bring about the lasting change we are all searching for.
