Nature’s Puzzles: An Ecocritical Theorisation of Children’s Activity Books

A large proportion of contemporary children’s activity books are nature-themed, focusing on animals, ecosystems or seasons, for example. Their puzzles position readers as organisers and could reinforce how humans organise nonhumans spatially and linguistically, supporting human control. So do activity books glorify human ways of organising nature or highlight nature’s ways of organising itself? Despite their human readers and authors, the puzzles are inspired by natural challenges, implicitly positioning nonhumans and natural processes as authors and organisers too. This study considers thirty recent nature-themed activity books for children, ecocritically analysing their structures and types of puzzle. “Humans Organise the Book?” discusses how animal characters posing and solving puzzles shift organisational authority from the human implied author and reader. Activity books highlight the organisational power of natural processes when a plot follows seasons or a setting emphasises an ecosystem. “Finding Puzzles: The Reader’s Animal Intelligence” analyses line-tracing puzzles, search-and-find, and mazes. When nature-themed, these finding puzzles are ultimately set by other animals and tricky terrain. They emphasise that humans are animals, as human readers sharpen skills other creatures rely on to move around safely and find food. “Naming Puzzles: Looking for Logical Names” ecocritically evaluates wordsearches, crosswords, match-the-name-and-picture, and riddles. Some naming puzzles risk glorifying how humans organise nonhumans, but stress species’ distinctive features, conveying nature’s organisation of species through evolution. Overall, the organisation and puzzles of nature-themed activity books for children are directly inspired by nature, emphasising nature’s organisational authority and so resisting anthropocentrism.