sharky_97
King Sharky (he/she/they) - 128 yr old with AuADHD future shark biologist 🦈 amateur entomologist 🐛 leader of lobster cult 🦞 🖤🩶🤍💜💚🤍🩶🖤 brb, busy fighting data centres
25128 points
October 2026
3.88 average · 356 reviews
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I am so happy with whatever life decisions led me to read this book. I don’t know where to start my praise, but I’ll try my best.
Art: Stunning. Gorgeous. Eliška Podešvová is a talented artist and tattooist, and those skills shine through in this book. The plant drawings are absolutely beautiful and remind me of plant studies from the 17th/18th century. Even simple elements like arrows look intentional on the pages. Before learning that Eliška was a tattooist, I remember thinking I would absolutely love to have art from the book tattooed on myself.
Accessibility of Information: The Book of Disappearing Plants is marketed as a children’s nonfiction book, so while reading, I asked myself whether a middle school student could read along and what they would take away by the end. I would say any child, whether they read the book themselves or have it read to them, will leave with an appreciation for plants. Štěpánka Sekaninová does a fantastic job of communicating information about extinct plants to readers. I can 100% see this book in a middle school library, and even in a grade 3/4 homeroom classroom. Sure, there are some bigger words, but I don't think nonfiction for kids should hide from difficult topics/concepts just because the primary reading demographic is children. Sentences about climate change or how the plant went extinct are communicated without jargon, and a bonus: the sentences aren't condescending. I think connections to climate change and habitat loss are clearly explained, while leaving room for readers to ask more questions. I know I'd look up what else goats eat. :P
Information Depth: The depth at which each plant is covered strikes a good balance between sharing the whole story while letting readers make connections between each species. For example, if a child started flipping through the pages, I could see them pick up on a pattern in the extinction reasons (e.g., agriculture repeatedly appears in bubble text boxes). Part of that is how the information is displayed on the page. A simple map illustration shows where the species was found, along with text stating when it was last seen. Each species has a bubble text box where Štěpánka shares the known or likely reason the plant went extinct, even if that information was stated somewhere in the paragraphs. Text for each species expands on interesting and relevant facts, such as the origin of its name or how naturalists tried to save the vulnerable plant before it went extinct in the wild.
How I can see this being used in classrooms: This book would work really well in climate change or conservation-related units. Whether it’s one of the books students can pick for quiet reading time or a more guided class reading. Additionally, I think it would pair really well with an interactive outdoor lesson (though I understand a lot of schools with predominantly black and brown students in Canada may not have access to lots of urban nature - not sure if this extends to other areas) where students get to observe patterns of plant species distribution and abundance. It can also tie back to habitat and food web units, as some species highlighted in this book include text stating which animals interacted with the extinct plant. I know this book is going in my community science project box!
Further Reading: Štěpánka shares additional resources for younger and older readers, including websites and definitions, at the end of the book. They also share a QR code to their research so readers can find more information since it was limited. I am so incredibly excited to go through their research one day!
Final Note: If you have access to this book through your library or bookshops, I encourage everyone to read it and share it with any young readers in your life!
Thank you NetGalley for this ARC!
Hi everyone!
There have been a few club posts related to accessibility and pagebound, and there are always a handful of comments from people sharing what they do/have tried to make this platform more accessible for themselves. I figured we could make a community list here in one post, and then users can save the post for later reference/easy searching. These will be suggestions to help us be more helpful to each other.
Some accessibility solutions are beyond users' control, for example, the implementation of dark mode and dyslexia-friendly fonts, but I'm sure those solutions will be in future versions of Pagebound. (as of august 6th 2026, we have dark mode for the app - andriod users) Obviously, everyone's experience with a visible or invisible disability is different, and there is no "one size fits all" kind of solution, so feel free to comment what you do even if you think it might not be helpful to everyone!
As people comment, I'll edit the lists below. I will not be using the markdown list format, and instead a bullet point will be represented by a small black square emoji.
Discussion posts about accessibility and Pagebound ▪️🔗colours of the flag - a disability pride list series ♿︎ 🌈 ᯓ★ post by keyaunna ▪️🔗Capitalization Accessibility post by hibiscus299 ▪️🔗The Importance of Alt Text post by HyacinthBlue ▪️🔗Accessibility in Pagebound post by nivedha ▪️🔗Calling All Fellow Dyslexic Readers!! post by SailUncharted
How to make PB a more accessible experience for each other ▪️ Add quotes around quotations when in a body of text instead of just italicizing the text with markdown formatting (comment by Loyaute) ▪️Format long posts with paragraphs, as large blocks of text can be difficult to read (comment by Sysanet-SamLNasset) ▪️When adding gifs and images, use the alt text section to describe the image and its purpose (comment by KittenInACave) ▪️When adding a hyperlink, add a chain emoji in front of the square bracket, as hyperlinks are not always underlined on all devices. ▪️Bold numbers if typing out a numbered list or use bullet points (markdown bullet points do not always show up) ▪️To improve visual and screen reader readability of usernames, opt to use Pascal Case, Camel Case, or underscores. Pascal Case example: KittenInACave vs kitteninacave. And Camel Case example: iPhone vs iphone (comment by KittenInACave and JohnNickleback)
How to make PB more accessible for yourself - webpage ▪️Dyslexia font add-ons to your web browsers (OpenDyslexia font recommended by leong.john.silvers) ▪️Bionic Reading add-ons to your web browsers (ex., Jiffy Reader on Chrome) ▪️GIF pausing/stopping add-ons to your web browsers (ex., GIF Stopper and Pause GIF on Firefox browser recommended by TomeFoolery) ▪️Dark mode add-ons to your web browsers (comment by TomeFoolery)
How to make PB more accessible for yourself - phone application ▪️Idea since there is no dark mode: Use Pagebound on your phone's browser instead of using the app, with the addition of browser add-ons that you need, such as dark mode extensions or accessible font extensions (comment by amalgama) ▪️iPhone and Android settings > accessibility > invert colour options (iPhone has a classic and smart invert option) (comment and clarification by spacedox) ▪️iPhone and Andriod settings > accessibility > colour filter/ correction > various options, including grayscale (clarification by spacedox) ▪️iPhone and Android settings > Screen Brightness settings > Eye Comfort/Eye Care/Night Mode/Night Shift option and an Anti-Flicker/Screen Flicker option (there will be options to automatically switch between having the warm yellow tint on and off, keeping it on all the time, and customizing the intensity of the tint ▪️iPhone accessibility setting for GIF motion: go to accessibility > motion > autoplay animations, and that should stop GIFs in Safari (comment by readalena) ▪️Extra Dim setting on Android devices as a temporary dark mode for the app (comment by TomeFoolery) ▪️iPhone Settings > Accessibility > Display & Text Size > options for dimming flashing lights, reducing bright effects, reducing white point (generally dims screen intensity), etc (comment by electrikate) ▪️Reduce White Point setting on iPhones as a way to reduce overall screen brightness and doesn't invert colours (comment by BreakingSapphire)
General information to know ▪️Markdown formatting appears differently on different devices (comment by Loyaute) ▪️Some devices' built-in screen-reader feature does not work with pb's app markdown alt text and will not read the alt text out loud - will submit a bug report (comment by sunblessedbabe) ▪️If an image does not load or is broken, the alt text will still appear (comment by chelssicle) ▪️Most screen readers will read out emojis (comment by HyacinthBlue) ▪️Link to 🔗Markdown Guide and linkn to 🔗Markdown Cheat Sheet ▪️Using a dark mode browser add-on will make most of the website dark, except certain image assets, such as the pastel wavy shape in the top right half of the home page (comment by amalgama) ▪️OpenDyslexia font does not work for every dyslexic reader I'll add any alternatives I see in the comments and any I find online (comments by SailUncharted and little_bunny)
General discussion posts on accessibility ▪️🔗Dyslexia, physical books and accessibility post by kamilla ▪️🔗Accessibility options post by masen
Resources and Information ▪️🔗OpenDyslexic Font Review (2026): Does It Actually Help? - OpenDyslexia is not helpful for every dyslexic reader, so this webpage provides more information about who it works well for and some alternatives. ▪️🔗Writing Alt Text Guide by the Royal National Institute for the Blind
Accessibility feature requests in roadmap ▪️🔗Request #5 - Dark mode for the app - request approved and in progress - Out on Android as of August 6th, 2026 ▪️🔗Request #261 - Adjustable Text Size - released on app ▪️🔗Request #208 - Spellcheck in Search Bar - released ▪️🔗Request #584 - Pagebound Website Dark Mode/High Contrast Mode - requested 11/7/2026, approved, and expected to be released by fall/winter 2026
If you have a "tip and trick" that you use outside of PageBound, please feel free to share it here! I learned about immersive reading from other readers here last year, and my AuADHD brain has never been happier. I also use the Jiffy Reader add-on when I'm on the web to make it easier to read comments and reviews. I hope everyone is having a wonderful Disability Awareness Month!
Edit: There have been a few ideas in the comments that I think we can turn into requests. I'll list those request ideas below and hopefully submit them before bed today (11/07/2026). Once they're submitted, I'll add them to the list above.
Request Ideas ▪️Make the Pagebound webpage more compatible with dark mode/night mode browser add-ons - currently, certain image assets do not work well with dark mode browser add-ons (comment by amalgama) (done and dark mode approved- request #584) ▪️Improve Pagebound webpage compatibility with bionic reading browser add-ons ▪️Add a section on accessible alt text usage, with examples, in the site's FAQs (from discussion post by HyacinthBlue) ▪️Improve Pagebound's compatibility with phone built-in screen readers (comment from sunblessedbabe)
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