Under Your Feet... Soil, Sand and Everything Underground

by Wenjia Tang (Illustrator)

Overview

Down where worms wriggle and microbes squirm, there's a whole world waiting to be discovered...

Under Your Feet delves beneath the Earth's surface and explores the diverse wonders hidden there. Encounter creatures of the deep and marvel at the mind-boggling size of the humongous fungus - the biggest organism in the world. Learn how one handful of ordinary soil contains more organisms than there are people on Earth, and carry out experiments using dirt from your own back garden.

Under Your Feet offers you the opportunity to expand your knowledge of the natural world and soil-dwelling creatures big and small. Bursting with colorful illustrations and photography, this is the perfect book for budding young plant experts, animal fanatics, and geologists, and anyone who is curious about the ground we walk on.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781465490957
Publisher:	DK
Publication date:	04/07/2020
Series:	Underground and All Around
Pages:	64
Product dimensions:	9.10(w) x 11.10(h) x 0.50(d)
Lexile:	IG840L (what's this?)
Age Range:	5 - 8 Years

About the Author

Marc Redmile-Gordon is an expert in the crucial link between soil and climate change, and is part of the RHS's science team. His work as a soil scientist focuses on how we can help stop human-driven climate change through improving soil quality.

Jackie Stroud is a soil scientist based at Rothamsted Research, England, one of the oldest agricultural research stations in the world. She is a devoted science communicator, often found out-and-about at events or in the media talking about the importance of healthy soil for farming. She pioneered World Worm Week, which raises awareness of the importance of worms in the soil ecosystem.

Wenjia Tang was born in China, and moved to the US when she was 15. She graduated from MICA (Maryland Institute College of Art) in 2017 and now lives in New York. She describes herself as an animal lover, and her previous work includes creating all the artwork for the educational app Mammals. Wenjia's artistic style is influenced by printmaking. Her work can be found on her website wenjiatang.com and her Instagram @wtangart.

Wenjia Tang was born in China, and moved to the US when she was 15. She graduated from MICA (Maryland Institute College of Art) in 2017 and now lives in New York. She describes herself as an animal lover, and her previous work includes creating all the artwork for the educational app Mammals. Wenjia's artistic style is influenced by printmaking. Her work can be found on her website wenjiatang.com and her Instagram @wtangart.

Editorial Reviews

2020-02-26
A view of the “important jobs” that soil and all the things that live in it have.

Considering the uncountable plants, animals, fungi, and microbes that live there, soil is a busy place—as the page design goes overboard in reflecting, with floating labels, teeming dollops of fact in diverse typefaces, snippets of photographs, and larger images done in a printlike style shoveled together in high-density arrays of angled or undulating lines on every spread. After opening with an overview of soil’s roles, particularly in regulating climate, the discourse plows through its organic and inorganic elements, how it varies in different environments, the living things that populate it, and, in broader context, how the dusty surfaces of the moon and Mars compare. Earthworms are such major players that they get two spreads of their own, six mentions of their “poop,” and instructions for setting up a catch-and-release “worm hotel.” Because the visuals are more about flash than furthering understanding, and the authors too seem bent on cramming in the dazzle (“Astronauts tried tasting moon dust!”), readers with a yen to dig deep may just scuff through this before going on to more fertile surveys like Marc ter Horst’s Hey There, Earth Dweller, illustrated by Wendy Panders and translated by Laura Watkinson (2019), or Tom Jackson’s Earth Sciences (2019).

Peeks under lots of rocks and logs but barely scratches the surface. (projects, glossary, index) (Informational picture book. 7-9)

Kirkus Reviews