The Lost Words by Robert Macfarlane

From bestselling Landmarks author Robert Macfarlane and acclaimed artist and author Jackie Morris, a beautiful collection of poems and illustrations to help readers rediscover the magic of the natural world.

This is not a book for children. Adults, though, I can think of many who would love it, who'd get a sappy smile upon seeing its size, feeling its heft, and stepping respectfully in. It's a gentle, sweetly comforting tome; Milne's Hundred Acre Wood in sepia. One could read it in an hour; my first pass took me a week. I enjoyed sipping, leaving it open to a word or illustration, stopping a few times each day to breathe it in.

Well... the illustrations are wonderful, one couldn't get anything less from Jackie Morris. The poetry is less impressive, though.

Here hunts heron. Here haunts heron.
Huge-hinged heron. Grey-winged weapon.
Eked from iron and wreaked from blue and
beaked with steel: heron, statue, seeks eel.