Ultrawild

WINNER: 2024 Australian Book Design Awards, Best Designed Children's Non-Fiction book
WINNER: 2024 New Zealand Book Awards for Children and Young Adults, Elsie Locke Non-Fiction Award
SHORTLISTED: 2025 Spark! School Book Awards - Non-Fiction category (UK)
SHORTLISTED: 2025 NSW Literary Awards, Patricia Wrightson Prize for Children's Literature

Join maverick inventor Steve Mushin as he tackles climate change with an avalanche of mind-bending, scientifically plausible inventions to rewild cities and save the planet.

Jump into his brain as he designs habitat-printing robot birds and water-filtering sewer submarines, calculates how far compost cannons can blast seed bombs (over a kilometre), brainstorms biomaterials with scientists and engineers, studies ecosystems and develops a deadly serious plan to transform cities into jungles, rewilding them into carbon-sucking mega-habitats for all species, and as fast as possible.

Through marvellously designed and hilarious engineering ideas, Mushin shares his vision for super-high-tech urban rewilding, covering the science of climate change, futuristic materials and foods, bio reactors, soil, forest ecosystems, mechanical flight, solar thermal power and working out just how fast we could actually turn roads into jungles, absorb carbon and reverse climate change.

Developed over seven years, Ultrawild is an optimistic book about creative thinking, science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM) and the potential for massive change. Filled with laugh-out-loud design-ridiculousness, it aims to empower and excite a new generation of designers, scientists, engineers and ultra-wild thinkers.

'"Audacious" rather understates the scope of inventor Steve Mushin's drawn manifesto for hacking the firmware of Terra Ferma into a hard reset. This is less a graphic novel than a densely illustrated week-long TED Talk, catapulting ideas in all directions... Ultrawild appeals to a childlike imagination, but requires an adult attention span and frame of reference to grasp its implications. If you have one, it is unexpectedly rewarding and endlessly thought-provoking.' FORBES


'If this book does not fire your imagination, nothing will. Steve Mushin doesn't hold back when thinking about our green future; humanity needs all the ideas it can get to bring climate change under control, and this book is packed with them!' Professor James Renwick, climate scientist

'A brain-meltingly intricate and inspiring compendium of the gigantic ideas needed to repair the planet by rewilding every city on Earth. From compost-firing cannons to water-filtering sewer submarines, Mushin's bonkers, brilliant, boundary-breaking inventions give permission to eager 9+ conservationists to push their imaginations to the limit, rather than yield to despair.' The Guardian

'The most astonishing children's book I have read in ages. I am astonished by the wildness of ideas, the creative energy, the exuberant movement of thought, the feet in science and the YES in imagining. Enter the wilds of Ultrawild and you will see the world afresh because this book is a clear response to climate change, the loss of habitats, outdated power sources, a need to care for forest ecosystems, over-roading, resource depleting. It is like imagination gets political and the political gets imaginative.' Paula Green, Poetry Box NZ

'This visionary, intricate, outrageous road map for integrated thinking is mind blowing. It's funny, it's a melding of engineering, hi-tech, botany, zoology and pure creative thinking. Required reading for everyone, most especially political leaders and those feeling like we've run out of ideas: this book proves we really haven't.' Claire Mabey, The Spin Off, Aotearoa Books of the Year, 2023

'The ideas, conversations and inventions in Ultrawild belong in every school, home, waiting room, library, community house, bedroom, car and loo. The perfect gift for curious kids. Don't walk - RUN to grab your copy!' Kids' Book Review

'A visually impressive, large-format work of genius.' The Sapling (NZ)