Uno’s garden

Uno, who loves the forest, builds his house there, and quickly more and more people follow him, forming a village, which becomes a town, then grows into a city. At the peak of urbanisation, only Uno’s garden is a safe haven for plants and the last snortlepig. The intense arithmetic behind the population growth and disappearance of animals and plants – animals disappear one by one as the number of buildings doubles – culminates in the people’s realisation that the forest is gone.

Graeme Base takes us on an emotional journey, as we joyfully hear about the existence of wonderful animals such as the magnificent moompaloops and leaping lumpybums only to sink into despair faced with their steady disappearance. But there is hope as Uno’s children begin their restoration project and slowly the numbers start to improve for plants and animals.

Uno’s story is a wonderful starting point for discussing a number of important issues and concepts with the children, such as numbers and their growth, cause and effect, ethics and action, and personal and communal responsibility for the environment with the children. Will the snortlepig return? Could we all be like Uno’s children and act more thoughtfully within our environment?