Our winter reading list favourites…

In a quiet moment with a hot chocolate, here are some winter reading suggestions from our team…

• Evolutionary Playwork by Bob Hughes – Delving into play’s evolutionary role, this book reimagines play as an essential, instinctual behaviour crucial to children’s development.
• The Play Ethic – A Manifesto fo a Different Way of Living by Pat Kane – Kane challenges the reader to see play not as a diversion but as a central, motivating force that fuels creativity, engagement, and innovation across all ages.
• Urban Playground: How Child-Friendly Planning and Design Can Save Cities by Tim Gill – Gill reveals how seeing cities through the eyes of children strengthens the case for planning and transportation policies that work for people of all ages, and for the planet. The book shows how urban designers and city planners can incorporate child friendly insights and ideas into their masterplans, public spaces and streetscapes.
• Last Child in the Woods by Richard Louv – Louv’s work highlights the importance of reconnecting children with nature, addressing the consequences of ‘nature deficit disorder.’
• Let the Children Play by Pasi Sahlberg and William Doyle – This book advocates for child-led, unstructured play as a vital part of learning and growth, drawing insights from global educational systems.
• Feral by George Monbiot – This book argues for the restoration of wildness in nature and the rewilding of ecosystems, exploring how human intervention has led to environmental degradation and how reintroducing lost species and natural processes can restore balance.
• Rewilding by Isabella Tree – Focusing on the power of rewilding, this book examines how restoring natural habitats and reintroducing extinct or endangered species can heal landscapes and help combat climate change, drawing on real-world examples of successful rewilding projects.