The Library Fox and the Lost Words: A Practical Guide for Parents and Teachers

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What is The Library Fox and the Lost Words about?

The Library Fox and the Lost Words is a story idea built around a real and rather wonderful book: The Lost Words by Robert Macfarlane and Jackie Morris. The book was published in October 2017 and uses acrostic “spells” and beautiful watercolour artwork to bring back natural words that are fading from children’s lives, such as bluebell, dandelion, otter, kingfisher and acorn, according to the John Muir Trust.

In this guide we explain why those words matter, how the book has been used in schools and homes across Britain, and how you can create your own “library fox” moments: cosy, curious sessions where children rediscover nature words through reading, speaking and outdoor play.

Key takeaways

• The Lost Words (2017) by Robert Macfarlane and Jackie Morris revives nature words that were removed from a new edition of the Oxford Junior Dictionary, including acorn, bluebell and kingfisher (University of Cambridge).
• Fundraising campaigns placed the book in every school in Scotland and Greater London, 21 English counties and 3 Welsh counties (University of Cambridge).
• Its companion book, The Lost Spells, offers shorter, pocket-sized spell-poems written to be read aloud, including one about a Red Fox (Lostspellsbook).
• A free Explorer’s Guide by Eva John, available from the John Muir Trust, is designed especially for teachers and educators.
• Reading aloud, acrostic writing and simple outdoor word hunts are the easiest ways to use these books with children of any age.

Why did the “lost words” need saving in the first place?

The story behind the book begins with a dictionary. When the Oxford Junior Dictionary was revised, everyday nature words such as acorn, bluebell and kingfisher were taken out because children were no longer using them often enough. In their place came words like broadband, voicemail and attachment, reflecting a more digital childhood (University of Cambridge).

Before that, there had been a widely reported finding that British primary school children were more at ease naming their favourite Pokémon character than naming a hare, a deer or an oak tree (University of Cambridge). Whatever we make of that comparison, it captures something many parents and teachers recognise: children can be fluent with screens while strangers to the names of the living things outside their window.

This is where our fox comes in. Imagine a wise library fox who guards a shelf of words nobody borrows any more. Each night, the fox whispers one word to a child: wren, conker, bramble. It is a lovely image, and it is exactly the work the real book set out to do.

How does The Lost Words actually work as a book?

Each spread of The Lost Words takes a single nature word and turns it into an acrostic “spell”: a poem where the first letters of the lines spell out the word itself. Jackie Morris’s watercolours conjure the creature or plant alongside the poem, so children meet the word, the picture and the shape of the letters all at once (John Muir Trust).

The book’s creators describe the words as being at a “challenge and celebration”: they are words moving to the margins of many children’s lives and stories, and the book calls them back (John Muir Trust).

The companion: The Lost Spells

The same creative duo later released The Lost Spells, a smaller, pocket-sized collection. Each “spell” conjures an animal, bird, tree or flower, from Barn Owl to Red Fox, Grey Seal to Silver Birch, Jay to Jackdaw. According to the Lostspellsbook site of the Folk by the Oak festival team, the poems were written to be read aloud and celebrate nature’s power to amaze, console and bring joy.

If you are working with younger children or shorter attention spans, The Lost Spells is often the easier starting point. Its poems are shorter, punchier and made for chanting.

How have schools used The Lost Words?

The book has had remarkable reach. Fundraising campaigns resulted in copies being donated to all schools in Scotland and Greater London, and to schools in 21 English and 3 Welsh counties, according to the University of Cambridge. Another campaign placed the book in every one of the 220 hospices in Britain.

Its cultural life has spread further still: it was adapted as a BBC Prom concert at the Royal Albert Hall, broadcast live on Radio 3, and inspired Spell Songs, a folk-music touring concert and book involving eight artists (University of Cambridge).

For teachers, the most practical resource is the free Explorer’s Guide to The Lost Words by Eva John, available to download from the John Muir Trust. It is written for anyone interested in nature, words and images who wants to explore the creatures and ideas in the book further, and it is especially useful for teachers and educators. The Trust also offers free downloadable posters featuring bramble, kingfisher, conker and dandelion, which make brilliant classroom displays.

The John Muir Trust page also shares the story of teacher Riley Stemp, who described being “blown away” by the writing the book inspired in pupils. That is the pattern many educators report: the spells seem to unlock children’s own writing.

What can parents do at home? The Library Fox method

You do not need a forest or a funded classroom. Here is a simple, repeatable routine we call the Library Fox method, because it turns any bookshelf into the fox’s word-lending shelf.

1. Borrow one word a week

Choose a single word from the book: otter, ivy, heron, fern. Write it on a card and prop it somewhere visible: the fridge, the kitchen table, the car dashboard. The goal is not to quiz the child but to let the word become familiar, the way a character’s name becomes familiar in a bedtime story.

2. Read the spell aloud, then read it again

The spells are written to be read aloud (Lostspellsbook). Read the poem once slowly, then let your child read or chant it back. Acrostics help here: because the first letters spell the word, children are quietly absorbing spelling while they perform.

3. Go and find the word

Not every word lives near every home, but many do. Dandelions, brambles and jackdaws are among the everyday species the book celebrates (Lostspellsbook). Even a window box can host a vocabulary of its own. The point is to connect the word on the page to something the child can see, smell or touch.

4. Let the child make their own spell

After a few weeks, invite your child to write an acrostic about a creature or plant they love, even the fox from our imaginary library. There is no wrong answer. A child who writes four wobbly lines about a snail has done exactly what Macfarlane and Morris hoped for: they have paid attention.

How can teachers build a lesson around The Lost Words?

For classrooms, the free Explorer’s Guide from the John Muir Trust is the best first stop, but here are some session shapes that work across key stages.

• The word detective lesson: show children the Oxford Junior Dictionary story (University of Cambridge) and ask which words they would keep and which they would cut. It sparks superb discussion about language and value.
• Read-aloud and illustrate: read one spell aloud, then have children paint or draw the creature while listening to the poem a second time. Pairing words with images supports comprehension, a theme we explore in our article on why children who can sound out words can still struggle to understand.
• Nature word wall: add one “found” word to a display each week, ideally with a child’s illustration. By summer the wall becomes a class-made field guide.
• Spell Songs as a hook: play a short piece from the Spell Songs project (University of Cambridge) to open the topic musically before moving to reading and writing.

If a child in your class or family needs more structured support with reading itself, a programme such as RTL English Level 2 (this is an affiliate link, which means we may earn a commission at no extra cost to you) offers step-by-step reading lessons that can sit alongside nature-word work rather than replace it.

Why does nature vocabulary matter for reading and wellbeing?

Vocabulary is the raw material of comprehension. A child who has never heard the word kingfisher will stumble over it in any story that contains one, no matter how well they decode the letters. Building a bank of concrete, sensory nouns gives reading somewhere to land.

There is also the pleasure of it. The creators of The Lost Spells describe the book as celebrating wonder, and teaching the names of everyday species while inspiring attention, love and care (Lostspellsbook). Naming a thing is the first step towards noticing it, and noticing is the root of both good writing and good science.

Finally, the book shows what happens when children’s writing meets something worth writing about. Teacher Riley Stemp described how the book inspired some beautiful writing from pupils, in a story shared with the Department of Education (John Muir Trust). The words give children material; the acrostic gives them a shape; the rest follows.

Which book should you choose: The Lost Words or The Lost Spells?

Both are by Robert Macfarlane and Jackie Morris, and both use spell-poems and artwork, but they suit different moments.

• The Lost Words (2017) pairs acrostic spell-poems with beautiful watercolour artwork by Jackie Morris. It suits shared reading, classroom displays and lingering over pictures (John Muir Trust).
• The Lost Spells is pocket-sized and written to be read aloud, with shorter poems about creatures from Barn Owl to Red Fox (Lostspellsbook). It suits walkie-talkie pockets, car journeys and bedtime chants.

Many families and schools end up with both: the big book as the treasured shelf copy, the small one as the well-thumbed everyday companion.

FAQ

What age is The Lost Words suitable for?

The poems and artwork work across a wide range. Younger children enjoy hearing the spells read aloud and studying the pictures, while older primary pupils can analyse the acrostic form and write their own. The University of Cambridge reports that the book led to mass participation of primary and secondary schools in learning ‘nature literacy’.

Is The Lost Words a story book or a poetry book?

It is best described as an illustrated book of acrostic “spells”: poems that each conjure a single plant or creature, with watercolour artwork by Jackie Morris (John Muir Trust). It is not a continuous narrative, though many families read it cover to cover like one.

Where can teachers find free resources for it?

The John Muir Trust offers a free Explorer’s Guide by Eva John, designed especially for teachers and educators, along with free downloadable posters of bramble, kingfisher, conker and dandelion (John Muir Trust).

Why were nature words removed from the Oxford Junior Dictionary?

According to the University of Cambridge, the revision removed words no longer used enough by children, such as acorn, bluebell and kingfisher, and added technology-related words such as broadband and voicemail. The change is what inspired the book.

Can we use the idea without buying the books?

Yes. The core practice, choosing one nature word a week, reading or chanting it, and finding it outdoors, works with any nature dictionary or even a homemade list. That said, the Explorer’s Guide and posters from the John Muir Trust are free, which makes a gentle starting point.

Bringing your own fox to life

The Library Fox is only a story, but the need behind it is real: words fade when nobody uses them, and children keep what they name. One word a week, read aloud, drawn, hunted for outdoors and perhaps spelled into a small acrostic of the child’s own, is enough to keep a whole meadow of language alive.

Start tonight. Pick a word, borrow a spell from the shelf, and let the fox do the rest.

Sources

• John Muir Trust: The Lost Words
• University of Cambridge: The Lost Words: inspiring children to love and protect nature
• Lostspellsbook: The Lost Spells