The Green Kingdom – Cornelia Funke and Tammi Hartung

Published By: DK Children
Pages: 224
Released: 06/03/2025
Illustrated By: Melissa Castrillon

Twelve-year-old Caspia hates big cities, especially one as busy as New York. So she isn’t thrilled by the news that her parents are taking her to stay in Brooklyn. It’s summer-devouring bad luck! But everything changes when Caspia discovers a bundle of letters, hidden in an old chest of drawers. They belonged to two sisters who lived there long ago. Each letter contains a ‘green’ riddle, with clues leading to a different plant.

Caspia sets out to solve the riddles and, as she does, she meets friends she could never have imagined and discovers that anywhere can feel like home, if you are just brave enough to put down new roots.

*****

Thanks to NetGalley and DK Children for the advanced copy of this title in return for an honest review.

This has such a beautiful cover that I couldn’t not mention it straight away!

I have heard of Cornelia Funke before, and I do have her Inkheart series on my wishlist, but this is the first of her books I am reading.

My digital version, unfortunately, didn’t have any clear illustrations and so I cannot comment on Melissa’s work, but if they’re anything like the description written down, they’re going to be beautiful. Cornelia has gone into so much detail about everything – the sounds of the city, the smells of the fumes mixing with the smells from the local spice shop, the sights of exotic trees – it’s all so well done but not over the top. Children get bored easily and so it would be quite easy to go too heavy into the detail and lose their attention but I think it’s a good balance. And – this is an assumption so please correct me if I’m wrong – but I believe Tammi is an expert on all things plants and so I imagine a good amount of the detail comes frrom her expertise.

This book is a love letter to nature, plants, flowers, trees, gardens etc. Which I loved. I don’t think people, kids included, really realise the importance of the natural world. And I wonder if that’s why Cornelia has set this book in a busy city, full of cars and fumes, only to have Caspia find a botanical garden, find letters about flowers, house her in a floral-decorated home. It really accentuates the importance of surrounding yourself in nature.

Caspia is our main character; this is her history and she’s fabulous. As someone in their 30s, it can be hard to relate to a 12-year-old girl, but she’s so well formed that she just leaps off the page. There are a number of other characters including:

– Her parents: Her father works in construction and we don’t get to know him too well, and her mother is working on a cookbook, and she was just lovely. I really enjoyed reading about her culinary attempts.

– The local shopkeepers: We meet two in particular, the elderly lady who runs the spice shop (Mrs Wahid), and the young girl who runs the local flower/book shop (Jemila) with her aunt. They both play wonderful roles in this book and work really well to further Caspia’s journey on.

– And then we have her friends: She has two friends from home (Laryssa and Ellie) who she worries will forget about her and so she tries to keep in touch. So we don’t get to know them in too much detail but they’re there for Caspia. And then she meets a young boy (Ado) whilst at the botanical gardens and whether it’s a friendship or more, he was also a great way t help further Caspia’s story.

I loved the story device of using these old letters; it adds an element of nostalgia to the book which was a nice touch and helped with it’s whimsical natural feeling.

It was a quick read, read over a few hours. It reads so well, the words flow so well, and it brings a smile to your face. You can’t be anything other than content and happy when reading it.