Graeme Base delivers an important message in ‘Uno’s Garden’: the need to maintain the balance between the environment and human habitation. Although a serious subject, Base offers rich imaginative worlds in both words and images. These feature inventive creatures living in a lush, intricately rendered environment complemented by a rich alliterative text.
We meet many creatures in this intricately designed landscape including, for example, the Magnificent Moopaloops, Leaping Lumpybums and Feathered Frinklepods. The environment is lush and numbers of animals grow, but there is a downside. Such beauty also attracts humans who require dwellings and so sacrifice the landscape. Eventually, the once natural environment is completely replaced by a crowded cityscape of people and dwellings.
Across the top of several double pages, Graeme Base records the changing balance between creatures, plants and buildings. With increasing human habitation comes a reduction in plants and animals. Eventually the city is rendered in dark, ominous shades revealing uninhabitable spaces. People long for nature and leave the city, but Uno saves a few plants. These are nurtured and grow. Slowly the landscape begins to resemble its former glory but there is a difference. There is a move towards a sustainable balance between people and the environment. Then, one spring, the forest and its inhabitants find themselves in ‘perfect balance’. A multitude of animals, plants and people now coexist as revealed in an immense gatefold crowded with detail.
For the mathematically inclined, Base offers tiny drawings of animals, plants and buildings across the top of many pages, thus tracking their balance against one another. ‘Uno’s Garden’ concludes with a happy ending as Uno’s children ensure a future environment with a balance between animals, plants and buildings.
Graeme Base describes ‘Uno’s Garden’ as part of a loose ‘jungle trilogy’ including ‘The Water Hole’ and ‘Jungle Drums’ with ‘Uno’s Garden’ being the final book in the trilogy. They feature the same border and title layout. The three books taken together offer the important message: the need to achieve the balance between nature and humans.
Picture Books for Older Readers
