Fiona Danks and Jo Schofield are the green queens of nature writing for kids. Here we talk to them about amazing adventures, the importance of connecting to nature and cool ways to coax reluctant kids outta the door!
‘The Stick Book’ inspired a generation of children off the sofa and into the wilds, turning branches into bows, boats and broomsticks. Their new book, ‘Make This Book Wild’, is an interactive scrapbook that encourages families to daub its pages with mud, dress up a dragon with leaves, or to leave it out in a downpour to try rain painting.
This is the eleventh book you’ve worked on together. How did you first meet?
Jo: “Our boys were friends. I trained as a photographer, had done a psychology degree, and was a teaching assistant.”
Fiona: “I did a college degree in ecology and then a PGCE. I worked in environmental education for a long time and then stopped to have a family. I was shocked by how many people didn’t go for walks with their children.”
Jo: “My son’s friends were getting to a point where they were disconnected from the natural world. They’d come to our house and not want to get stuck in. And I thought, we can do something fun here!”
Fiona: “Jo had been taking pictures of all the amazing adventures they’d been having and I’d been toying with the idea of writing something to get kids out and about. And so we decided to do a project together.”
