Quite often fungi has a bad rep — especially when it comes to poisonous mushrooms. However, there is so much more to learn, and a good book can open this exciting world up to your child. Mason Goes Mushrooming is an illustrated story with stunning pictures and is written in a classic children’s book format. As such, it interweaves educational ideas with an engaging story about a young boy who sets off into the woods with his dog. So, it’s time to start teaching your kids about the fungi kingdom. It’s certainly something that doesn’t always get enough attention. Not only is it a full kingdom of life, but it’s also one that gets a relatively bad name. We tend to think of fungi in limited terms, mostly imagining them as mushrooms, and poisonous ones at that. Fungi is an expansive and interesting kingdom, however. While it’s a generally scientific book written for seven to nine year olds, it still takes on a storytelling style and engages readers with a narrative. The story pieces itself together by focusing on various objects that occur naturally in the world, detailing them with beautiful photos and graphics. The book will resonate points of deep interest for any child who’s interested in various aspects of the natural world. Lots to know and think about, not just for our young readers but anybody wanting a good look at the humongous job that fungus do in our lives.

Soon afterward, the discovery of an even bigger fungus in southwestern Washington was announced by Terry Shaw, then in Colorado with the U.S. Forest Service (USFS), and Ken Russell, a forest pathologist at Washington State Department of Natural Resources, in 1992. Their fungus, a specimen of Armillaria ostoyae, covered about 1,500 acres (600 hectares) or 2.5 square miles (6.5 square kilometers). And in 2003 Catherine Parks of the USFS in Oregon and her colleagues published their discovery of the current behemoth 2,384-acre Armillaria ostoyae. If your child is a visual learner then Mushrooms of the World with Pictures to Color by Jeanette Bowers and David Arora is the perfect fungi book for them. Unfortunately, some customers reported that this book is a little too lengthy for children to enjoy. Pros and Cons of The Mushroom Fan Club by Elise Gravel Pros Not quite animals and not quite plants, the mysterious kingdom of fungi is full of secrets! Let’s unearth them together with this weird and wonderful book about mushrooms. And, at second glance, even those button mushrooms aren't so tiny. A large mushroom farm can produce as much as one million pounds (454 metric tons) of them in a year. "The mushrooms that people grow in the mushroom houses&133;; they're nearly genetically identical from one grower to another," Smith says. "So in a large mushroom-growing facility that would be a genetic individual—and it's massive!"A combination of good genes and a stable environment has allowed this particularly ginormous fungus to continue its creeping existence over the past millennia. "These are very strange organisms to our anthropocentric way of thinking," says biochemist Myron Smith of Carleton University in Ottawa, Ontario. An Armillaria individual consists of a network of hyphae, he explains. "Collectively, this network is called the mycelium and is of an indefinite shape and size." This book of fabulous fungi will intrigue and amaze young readers, and open their eyes to the fungi thriving all around them. Both the giant blue whale and the humongous fungus fit comfortably within this definition. So does the 6,615-ton (six-million-kilogram) colony of a male quaking aspen tree and his clones that covers 107 acres (43 hectares) of a Utah mountainside. Their beautiful mushrooms come in all colours, shapes, and sizes. Fungal stories include the greening of the Earth, when fungi helped plants first grow on land, and the mass destruction of crops through fungal disease. From the villains of the upcoming bananageddon to plastic-eating eco-warriors, there are over 1.5 million known fungus species, and a huge, unknown number of unnamed "dark" types. Some are even found inside animals - helpful fungi break down food in animal guts, but others take over their hosts' bodies.

You know those mushroom rings 🍄🍄🍄 in folklore that say they’re formed by fairies dancing in a circle? They exist! (The rings at least 😆) All of these characters tell their story in personal terms rather than scientific detail. Children who read this book might see the forest floor in new ways, engaging with the natural world as if it were intelligent, sentient, and friendly. Myron Smith was a PhD candidate in botany at the University of Toronto when he and colleagues discovered this exclusive fungus in the hardwood forests near Crystal Falls. "This was kind of a side project," Smith recalls. "We were looking at the boundaries of [fungal] individuals using genetic tests and the first year we didn't find the edge." Books with amazing illustrations are always a great way for children to learn, and that’s why Humongous Fungus (Underground and All Around) by Lynne Boddy is the perfect choice. Ironically, the discovery of such huge fungi specimens rekindled the debate of what constitutes an individual organism. "It's one set of genetically identical cells that are in communication with one another that have a sort of common purpose or at least can coordinate themselves to do something," Volk explains.Their goal is to forage for mushrooms, a practice that requires some knowledge and expertise. The watercolor images set the imaginative tone and reflect just how exciting and magical mushrooming can be. Written for four to eight year olds, Mushroom Rain explores all of the ideas and interesting things about mushrooms that adults know and love. From the underground information networks to the wild and fascinating expressions of fungi in nature, your child will get an appreciation for the wonder that fungi inspire. It depends on the age of the child in question. For younger children then a picture book or one with a simple story and a lot of illustrations would be ideal. However, if the child is older then a more comprehensive book would be best.