Make and Play: Build a Tree - by Philippa Forrester (Hardcover)

Book Synopsis

Build your very own model beautiful oak tree with 15 press-out play animals, while learning about the crucial role trees play on our planet!

This gorgeous interactive guide to trees is a delight for nature lovers and budding conservationists who enjoy model crafting and imaginative play.

Just press out the pieces and follow easy-to-follow instructions to build a 12-inch slot-together model of an oak tree, beautifully illustrated to show the tree in every season. No glue or scissors needed!

Over 15 buildable models add to the fun, including a deer, a fox, a wild boar, rabbits, an owl, a crow, robins and more to bring to life and recreate the tree's ecosystem.

The kit also features an intricately illustrated 32-page book, which explores every aspect of what makes trees unique, from the forest floor to up high in the canopy and all the biology and living things in between. Discover the wide variety of different forest from around the world, how trees provide a home to a wide range of creatures, tree biology, conservation and the incredible fungal networks that let trees communicate.

Written by Philippa Forrester, who's broadcasting career spans three decades of British primetime TV including Robot Wars and Tomorrow's World. With her husband, she has also written and produced a string of award-winning science and nature documentaries for the BBC, Animal Planet and Discovery. Philippa has published three books and has degrees in English literature and Ecology and Conservation. For six years, Philippa lived and worked in Wyoming encountering wolves, grizzly bears, moose and the odd cowboy. She returned to live in the UK in the summer of 2020. Back home, she is rediscovering her own patch of wilderness and the joys of the English countryside, especially her favourite wild animal, otters.

Illustrated by Natalia Roja Castro, who has worked in various visual fields, such as books, magazines and illustration for advertising. The inspiration for her work comes from her surroundings, the streets of Bogota, the colours and nature of Colombia and Latin America. Natalia works in digital format, using textures to give her images an organic touch. Her work has been featured in Vice, Avianca magazine, Domestika, Señal Colombia, editorial planeta among others.

With endless play value as well as a lovely decorative piece to brighten up a bedroom, Build a Tree helps build a connection to the natural world and stimulates imaginative play for children aged 7 and up

About the Author

Philippa has been a well known TV and radio presenter and producer working primarily for the BBC for many years. She has always had a passion for the natural world and competed a part time degree in Ecology and Conservation while working on TV. She spent seven years living in Jackson hole Wyoming where she remotely completed a masters degree in writing and has continued to write, mainly about the natural world, for both adults and children.

Natalia is an illustrator based in Bogotá, Colombia. She has worked in various visual fields, such as books, magazines and illustration for advertising. Natalia has also enjoyed working on several social projects involving the rural population in Colombia.