What I love about non fiction
Is that it comes in so many
Different styles
I adore illustrated non fiction
With beautiful artwork
I love information written as poetry
And I adore narrative nonfiction
I find that my three daughters
All shy away from non fiction
Where as my son devours
Books of facts
They all have access to
The same bookshelves
But the girls rarely choose
A nonfiction book
But when they do
They always go for ones
That are wrapped up in stories
With stunning illustrations
One such book is
When The Storks Came Home
Written by Isabella Tree
Illustrated by Alexandra Finkledey
This brilliant and beautiful book
Tells the tale of the
White Stork Project
A reintroduction programme
For the White Stork
Here in the UK
They were hunted to the
Brink of extinction
In medieval times
The last recorded nesting pair
Of White Storks in the UK
Was in Edinburgh
Over 600 years ago
In 1416
In 2016
The White Stork Project began
A rewilding project in
Knepp, West Sussex
The project has been
An amazing success
With lots of storks
Building nests and
Rearing chicks
The tale is told beautifully in
When The Storks Came Home
From Ivy Kids
A planet friendly publisher
The story begins with Beanie
An animal lover
With a passion for birds
One day she cannot go
To the local nature reserve
To watch birds
As her baby brother is born
Some of the New Baby cards
Have white birds on them
Birds Beanie has never seen before
She asks her mum about them
Who tells her that they are
White storks
Birds that used to nest
On the rooftops in their village
Beanie asked her friend
At the nature reserve
About the storks
He tells her all about them
How they are amazing fliers
That they migrate between
Europe and Africa
He explains that long ago
People hunted storks
And drove them away
Storks live in colonies
And if they cannot find a colony
They do not feel safe to nest
Hearing the fate of the storks
Makes Beanie feel angry
She starts to research the birds
She finds some storks in Poland
That have been injured
And need a home
Together Beanie and her friend
Make a plan
To bring the storks to England
To their village
To begin a new colony
And to try to introduce the birds
Back to the UK
Back to their village rooftops
The pair research and prepare
They raise money
And awareness
They welcome the storks
To the reserve
And look after them
With great care
One day Beanie sees a
Wild white stork
And she hopes that they might
See the new colony
And come to join them
At first nothing happens
And Beanie needs a new plan
To encourage the wild birds
To join the new colony
She knows just what she needs to do
Soon a wild stork arrives
And begins courting one of Beanie’s storks
Leading to a very happy ending
For Beanie and her friend
For the reserve and their village
And for the white storks
A wonderful uplifting story
Of rewilding
Of reintroducing
A vanished species
The artwork is beautiful
And we have learned so much
From the pages of this book
We hope to one day to
See White Storks in the wild
A truly inspiring story
And a brilliant example
Of the power of
Narrative nonfiction