The Adventures of a Grain of Dust

4.5

This charming book for children is full of interesting facts about all sorts of plants, insects, birds and animals and how they all help to enrich the soil for farmers - each in its own special way. Join our narrator, The Grain of Dust on a fascinating journey around the planet to meet them.

"I don't want you to think that I'm boasting, but I do believe I'm one of the greatest travellers that ever was; and if anybody, living or dead, has ever gone through with more than I have I'd like to hear about it. Not that I've personally been in all the places or taken part in all the things I tell in this book—I don't mean to say that—but I do ask you to remember how long it is possible for a grain of dust to last, and how many other far-travelled and much-adventured dust grains it must meet and mix with in the course of its life. ...Finally, if what we call flesh and blood can think and talk, why not a grain of dust? In fact, what is flesh and blood but dust come back to life? Says the poet—and the poets know:

'The very dust that blows along the street Once whispered to its love that life is sweet.'

You see it's as likely a thing as could happen—this whole story."

Summary by J. M. Smallheer with quotes from the Preface of the book

Chapters

Select a chapter to play

00 - Just a Word 2:46 Read by J. M. Smallheer
01 - The Little Old Man of the Rock 23:35 Read by J. M. Smallheer
02 - Some Early Settlers and Their Bones 22:24 Read by J. M. Smallheer
03 - The Winds and the World's Work 24:04 Read by J. M. Smallheer
04 - The Bottom-Lands 23:54 Read by J. M. Smallheer
05 - What the Earth Owes to the Earthworm 22:41 Read by J. M. Smallheer
06 - The Little Farmers with Six Feet 27:24 Read by J. M. Smallheer
07 - Farmers with Four Feet 29:23 Read by J. M. Smallheer
08 - Water Farmers Who Help Make Land 29:12 Read by J. M. Smallheer
09 - Farmers Who Wear Feathers 32:41 Read by J. M. Smallheer
10 - The Busy Fingers of the Roots 22:02 Read by J. M. Smallheer
11 - The Autumn Stores and the Long Winter Night 24:17 Read by J. M. Smallheer
12 - The Brotherhood of the Dust 25:22 Read by J. M. Smallheer

Reviews

excellent


apparent observations rather than dry facts. truely entertaining, though I wonder if some observations have stood the test of time.

really good!


very informative and full of character, a gem of a book read beautifully!