Grow
Written and illustrated by Jess McGeachin
A & U Children 2026
Reviewed by Mia Macrossan
Jess continues to create attractive and informative picture books, mainly non-fiction, including Find Me in the Forest, South with the Seabirds, The Space Between, Business Chickens and Kind, all reviewed in StoryLinks. He has won numerous awards for his work as he is adept at exploring our world with simple accessible language and luscious artwork.
Grow is an exhortation written in verse dedicated to his son George, obviously written from the heart. There are many different plants and animals on earth and many different ways to grow. Some suggestions are vibrant like the corals… tall like sunlit seaweed… lightly like the lichen… sturdy like the trees… hardy as a cactus…or cunning like the trap plants.
Each type has a detailed labelled spread. I really had no idea there was such variety in lichen, or sponges, or ferns. Jess has chosen the most interesting shapes and names. Who can resist finding out more about the dragon blood tree, the open brain coral, anemone stinkhorn or the toxic finger sponge?
The whole is gorgeously illustrated in lush colour and carefully observed and rendered detail. There are only four lines on each spread but each verse provides plenty of stimulus for discussion.e.g.
Grow vibrant like the corals – Building cities undersea – Take a while to flaunt your style – As colourful as can be
or Grow to know the things at risk -The life we stand to lose – Steel and stone, or wilder home – It’s up to us to choose.
So here is an lush exploration of the natural world combined with a challenging list of desirable qualities that human beings can aspire to. Grow is not only a springboard for exploring the natural world around us but also a prompt to compariing and contrasting how things and people grow and develop, to look at ourselves and find out what some of these qualities can mean and more.
A book to keep, to give, to revisit, and to enjoy time and time again.
For age 3+
Other books by Jess McGeachin include
