The publication is aimed at children and young people. It touches on the circulation of matter in nature, emphasising its naturalness and inevitability. The form of the book refers to an old notebook, and the illustrations are placed in the margins. Hidden in the folds are tasks for children, designed to encourage them to interact with nature.

The idea for the content of the book came from a summer workshop revolving around the theme of gardens, which culminated in an exhibition for children Beware! There are sharks swimming in the pond. Consideration of the metaphysical concept of gardens while working on an exhibition of artists with children resulted in the concept of a text based on inspiration from the remarkable book Eternal Life. On the animal form of death by Bernd Heinrich - biology professor, runner and, above all, teacher. The protagonist of the garden story is modelled on the person of B. Heinrich. The target group, schoolchildren, on the other hand, can identify with the rest of the protagonists, who form a class in primary school. The original text about the transformation of one organism into another in the process of decomposition is complemented by equally valuable and dramatic illustrations, which form a separate story about the overlooked "still life". The book, thanks to the involvement of two young talented artists, has become a book for both children and young people, as well as for adults, surprised by the content of the story, its educational advantages and the lightness of the drawings, which touch on a taboo subject - decomposition, natural transformation. The whole work, dressed in the form of an old notebook, transports the reader into the world of nature researchers, which is enhanced by the selected paper.

Text: Maciej Cholewa | Illustrations, graphic design and typesetting: Piotr Kowalczyk | Translation: Małgorzata Kalinowska | ISBN 978-83-61853-17-6 | CSW Kronika, Bytom 2017

The digital version of this publication is available under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 4.0 International license.

Subsidised by the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage.

Copyright - Non-commercial use - No derivative works 4. 0 International (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0)