Seeds of Hope: Wisdom and Wonder from the World of Plants

In her wise and elegant new book, Jane Goodall blends her firsthand experiences in nature with her knowledge of botany to give her readers a deeper understanding of the world around us. Her connection to plants is revealed through encounters both domestic and wild. Long before she came to work with chimpanzees, her passion for the natural world sprouted in the backyard of her childhood home in England, where she climbed beech trees and made elderberry wine with her grandmother. The gardens her family began then, she continues cultivating today, and Goodall encourages her readers to pursue gardening as a source of solace, healing and hope, and to look to plants for emotional, nutritional, and medical sustenance. From England, Goodall takes us to Africa, introducing the reader to biodiversity hotspots in Gombe. Deep inside the world’s largest rainforest, she finds a sense of timelessness and peace. She witnesses the “waterfall dance” of a chimpanzee, celebrating nature with his own breathless excitement. And we meet plant heroes worldwide, from past to present, be they “plant hunters” of the 18th and 19th centuries, such as Carl Linneaus–who first decided to classify plants and animals into families, genera, and species–or Dr. Nellie Suggi, who hand-pollinates exotic plants on cliffs in Hawaii today. Looking at the natural world as an adventurer, eater, scientist, and nature-lover–and setting forth simple goals we can all take to protect the diversity and growth of the plants around us–Jane Goodall delivers an enlightening story of the resilient powers we can find in our own backyards.