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World Environment Day 2024: Learn & Discover more with Mr Dilly and Guests

Welcome to World Environment Day 2024 with Mr Dilly and Guests! Join us on Wednesday 5th June 05 at 11:00 AM BST for an educational, exciting online event filled with insight, fun, book readings, draw-along, poetry, chat and your questions. Perfect for children, schools and curious minds everywhere to expand your knowledge about the environment and discover ways to make a positive impact.

Brilliant for literacy, science, reading and learning about our planet. Suitabel KS2+ (7 yrs plus).

Live guest on the day…
PARI THOMSON - Author of Greenwild, as well as being an editorial director for picture books at Bloomsbury Children’s Books.

Half Persian, half English, she has lived in many places, including India, Pakistan, the United States, the United Kingdom, and Belgium. She studied at Oxford University and now lives near the river in London, not far from Kew Gardens.

Greenwild: The City Beyond the Sea - Across the ocean, a magical adventure awaits in The City Beyond the Sea, the spellbinding, beautifully-illustrated sequel to Overall Waterstones Children's Book Prize winner and Blackwell's Children's Book of the Year, Greenwild: The World Behind the Door by Pari Thomson.


HUW LEWIS JONES - Huw Lewis Jones is a polar-exploring author and naturalist who is lucky to have met many animals in the wild. He is Associate Professor at Falmouth University, teaching natural history, and has written history books about photography, icebergs, mountains and maps. He is also the author of the Bad Apple series of picture books. Sam Caldwell is an illustrator based in Glasgow, Scotland. He studied painting at the Edinburgh College of Art and is the illustrator of several books for children, including Do Bears Poop in the Woods?.

Do Penguins Like the Cold?: 2 (Go Wild) - A charmingly illustrated book that takes readers on a field trip to Antarctica and beyond to discover the secret life of penguins.

In this entertaining and highly informative book, polar-explorer Huw Lewis Jones and nature illustrator Sam Caldwell take readers on an intrepid field trip to Antarctica and beyond to discover the secret life of penguins. Journeying throughout the Southern Hemisphere to incredible locations including Argentina, Australia, Chile, the Galápagos Islands, Namibia, New Zealand, Peru and South Africa, Do Penguins Like the Cold? introduces readers to the 18 species of penguin and the conservation work underway to protect them and their habitats.


LIZ FLANAGAN - Liz Flanagan is an award-winning author who writes for children and young adults. Her books include Dragon Daughter, Rise of the Shadow Dragons and Eden Summer (nominated for the Carnegie Medal).

Joe Todd-Stanton is the author and illustrator of The Secret of Black Rock which won the Waterstones Children's Book Prize 2018 and was longlisted for the 2018 CILIP Kate Greenaway Medal.

Wildsmith: The Hidden Sea
The third book in The Wildsmith series. Rowan has been working as a wildsmith, rescuing magical animals. But when she finds herself alone and far from home, this time Rowan is the one who needs to be rescued! She travels deep into enemy territory and makes some surprising discoveries, coming face to face with great danger. With the help of new friends – and old ones – will she ever make it home again?


PATRICIA DANIELS - Patricia Daniels has written more than a dozen books for adults and children, most of them about science, history, or a combination of the two. A frequent contributor to National Geographic’s publications, she has covered everything from astrophysics to Zuniceratops. Pat lives in Pennsylvania, USA, with her husband, a college professor, and has two grown sons and two grown cats

How to Teach Grown-Ups About Climate Change

Never has there been a more perfect time to empower children to take the lead and educate their grown-ups about climate change. Featuring a foreword by internationally renowned climate scientist Dr Michael E. Mann and bursting with fabulous original illustrations by Aaran Blecha, this delightfully witty book deals with the pressing topic of our changing planet in an uplifting, positive manner. Interwoven amongst the more serious questions – why is Earth so special in the first place? How do we know about climate change? What causes it? How can we recognise false information? – are fun-filled facts about cow burps, woolly mammoths, panda-shaped solar panels, and much more. Crucially, this book also equips children and adults alike with the practical tools they need to tackle climate change in their everyday lives. And there’s a handy quiz at the end so that you can check your grown-up has been paying attention!


Plus pre-recorded are..

Poetry with GABBY DAWNAY - Gabby is a children’s writer, scriptwriter, poet and occasional illustrator. She has been 'poet-in-residence' for the children’s art and science magazine, ‘OKIDO’ since 2007 and co-adapted and developed the magazine for children's television, where it became hit CBeebies animated pre-school show: ‘Messy goes to OKIDO!' Gabby wrote for all three series, available to watch on BBC iPlayer, Netflix and YouTube.

A Field Guide to Spring: Play and Learn in Nature - The first book in the charming new series 'Wild by Nature', inspired by the Forest School movement and designed to teach young children how to engage with nature from season to season.

Building on children’s natural curiosity about the world around them, this book aims to establish a connection with nature at an early age that will go on to last a lifetime! Hunt for seedlings, squelch about in the mud, identify birds’ eggs and build your own nest. Discover how tadpoles transform into frogs and why rainbows appear in the sky.

This book features lyrical poems, hands-on crafts and activities, scientific facts, and identifier pages to help children spot different animals and plants. Whether a child’s access to nature is in the form of an urban park, a private garden, a field, or a forest, there is so much to discover and experience.


Draw-along with KERRY HYNDMAN - Kerry Hyndman is an illustrator who loves making pictures that spark a sense of wonder in the natural world. She works on a variety of publishing, editorial and advertising projects and has a growing number of non-fiction children's books under her belt. She's also the proud owner of a Blue Peter book award (and badge!).

Nature's Fascinating Friendships

Did you know pom pom crabs wear sea anemones as boxing gloves to fight off enemies? And greater honeybirds guide humans to hidden beehives? And bats use pitcher plants as sleeping bags? From ravens and wolves to trees and fungi, learn how these unlikely alliances are formed and find out all the incredible, funny, weird and disgusting reasons why these partnerships work. Every page is beautifully illustrated and packed full of facts that should surprise and inspire us all to overcome our differences and work together more.