From Dara McAnulty, a globally renowned figure in the youth climate activist movement, comes a memoir about loving the natural world and fighting to save it.
Diary of a Young Naturalist chronicles the turning of a year in Dara's Northern Ireland home patch. Beginning in spring--when "the sparrows dig the moss from the guttering and the air is as puffed out as the robin's chest"--these diary entries about his connection to wildlife and the way he sees the world are vivid, evocative, and moving.
As well as Dara's intense connection to the natural world, Diary of a Young Naturalist captures his perspective as a teenager juggling exams, friendships, and a life of campaigning. We see his close-knit family, the disruptions of moving and changing schools, and the complexities of living with autism. "In writing this book," writes Dara, "I have experienced challenges but also felt incredible joy, wonder, curiosity and excitement. In sharing this journey my hope is that people of all generations will not only understand autism a little more but also appreciate a child's eye view on our delicate and changing biosphere."
Winner of the Wainwright Prize for UK nature writing and already sold into more than a dozen territories, Diary of a Young Naturalist is a triumphant debut from an important new voice.
Praise for Diary of a Young Naturalist
"A remarkable book, the most moving memoir I have read in years." --Minneapolis Star Tribune
"Lyrical and often dazzling . . . Voices like his--and books like this one--empower us to appreciate and protect our planet." --Scientific American
"For such a young author, McAnulty displays an astounding ability to capture and articulate his feelings and the nuances of the natural world, and his sincere compassion and lyrical prose captivate. . . . A heartfelt, uplifting, hopeful memoir from a talented new voice in nature writing."-- Kirkus (starred review)
"McAnulty joins the ranks of those whose work seeks acceptance of non-neurotypical thought and demonstrates that people with autism contribute singularly authentic, and essential, human perspectives. In the case of McAnulty, it is a perspective of unfettered adoration for plants and animals that rebuts a status quo of marginalization and suppression. . . . Over and over again, McAnulty reminds us that our most immediate environment lies within our own minds--and that between each one of us is the same cherished diversity we can also find by leaving a bucket of murky water in the yard and seeing what arrives." --Sierra Magazine
"At once a lush and moving mediation and an electric clarion call to action, Diary of a Young Naturalist is a kaleidoscope of sensory delights. McAnulty's year of observing barn owls, cowslips, bracket fungus, springtails, corncrakes, and the exquisite rendering of summer's first blackberries (just to name a few)--make for a superbly rendered peek into a most extraordinary life. Each page vibrates with a hum of tenderness and bright possibilities for readers to take stock and joyful note of the world around them. This book will change your life if youlet it. Go on, let it." --Aimee Nezhukumatathil, author of World of Wonders
"Dara's is an extraordinary voice and vision: brave, poetic, ethical, lyrical, strong enough to have made him heard and admired from a young age." --Robert Macfarlane, author of Underland
"If planet earth has any chance of surviving the depredations of global capitalism, it rests in the intensity and commitment of the younger generations, teenage climate activists like Greta Thunberg and Dara McAnulty . . . In Diary of a Young Naturalist McAnulty gets at some of the reasons why they're able to maintain faith in the possibility of change as he records his life-giving daily connections to the natural world over the course of a year in Northern Ireland." --Literary Hub, "Nonfiction Books You Should Read This Summer"
"Through a year of lyrical and profound diary entries, McAnulty describes his unique way of perceiving the world around him and his connection to nature." --BuzzFeed, "Best Books of June 2021"
"Through a year in his home patch in Northern Ireland, Dara spent the seasons writing. These moving entries about his connection to wildlife and the way he sees the world are raw in their telling." --Yale Climate Connections, "12 Books to Get Your Summer Reading Started"
"Diary of a Young Naturalist is a call to an awakening that draws on and activates powerful imagination, where nature also lives. . . . This is a book that offers another way to come to the truth of what is happening. Importantly--crucially--it shows what is possible through small but repeated acts of perfect observation of the here and now." --ClimateCultures
"In this stunning debut . . . McAnulty delivers a galvanizing love letter to nature. . . . The author's lush prose enchants as he chronicles a year of campaigning for climate justice and exploring the vastness of Northern Ireland's outdoors. . . . This should be required reading." --Publishers Weekly
"[McAnulty's] lyrical descriptions of birds, insects, landscape, and seascapes are beyond his years, yet he also candidly relates the teenage angst of dealing with bullying and trying to find a place in the world." --Library Journal
Dara McAnulty is the author of Diary of a Young Naturalist. He lives with his mum, dad, brother Lorcan, sister Bláthnaid, and rescue greyhound Rosie in County Down, Northern Ireland. He is the recipient of the Wainwright Prize for nature writing. Dara's love for nature, his activism, and his honesty about autism have earned him a huge social media following from across the world, and many accolades. In 2017, he was awarded BBC Springwatch "Unsprung Hero" and Birdwatch magazine "Local Hero"; in 2018, he was awarded "Animal Hero" of the year by the Daily Mirror and became ambassador for the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals and the iWill campaign; and in 2019, he became a Young Ambassador for the Jane Goodall Institute and became the youngest-ever recipient of the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds Medal for conservation.