Is This a House for Hermit Crab?
Megan McDonald, illustrated by S. D. Schindler
ISBN: 0531084558 (library bound)
Lovely colored-pencil naturalist drawings of hermit crab in beautiful environments.
Hermit crab has outgrown his current house - he can't tuck himself all the way inside any more, and the fishes and the seabirds are going to get him if he doesn't move into a roomier shell soon. This story gently follows along as the dauntless crab searches for just the right place to move into, rejecting smooth stones, driftwood, cab pits, and nets before finding just the right shell to scramble into.
This one would go well with The Hermit Crab from our summer reading program.
Showing posts with label natural history. Show all posts
Showing posts with label natural history. Show all posts
Wednesday, August 19, 2015
Monday, May 18, 2015
Juv Nonfiction: An Egg is Quiet, Dianna Aston & Sylvia Long
And guess what got returned to the library today?
An Egg is Quiet
Dianna Aston, illustrated by Sylvia Long
ISBN: 9780811844284
Beautiful and evocative biology/naturalist illustrations and descriptions.
I was very excited about A Nest is Noisy, and mentioned this earlier book in the review, so when this one came back across the counter, I decided to go ahead and talk a bit about this one also. The two go together so very well, I think.
The doubled end-papers are here also, with a mottled-egg-spotchy outer endpapers, and a collection of all the eggs on the front inner set - eggs that I must note included sea animals, insects, and reptiles. What I find lovely about this is that the BACK inner set of end-papers don't have the eggs. What do you think they have instead? :)
This earlier book has much less text to it - the flowing script guides us simply and succinctly through varied colors and shapes of eggs, before finally getting a bit more meaty with the camouflage, and then immediately tapering back off again to look at sizes, designs, textures, and fossils. Our last spread gives us an overview of development, looking at a chicken for the birds, a salmon for the fish/reptiles, and a grasshopper for the insect world.
Such a beautiful book.
An Egg is Quiet
Dianna Aston, illustrated by Sylvia Long
ISBN: 9780811844284
Beautiful and evocative biology/naturalist illustrations and descriptions.
I was very excited about A Nest is Noisy, and mentioned this earlier book in the review, so when this one came back across the counter, I decided to go ahead and talk a bit about this one also. The two go together so very well, I think.
The doubled end-papers are here also, with a mottled-egg-spotchy outer endpapers, and a collection of all the eggs on the front inner set - eggs that I must note included sea animals, insects, and reptiles. What I find lovely about this is that the BACK inner set of end-papers don't have the eggs. What do you think they have instead? :)
This earlier book has much less text to it - the flowing script guides us simply and succinctly through varied colors and shapes of eggs, before finally getting a bit more meaty with the camouflage, and then immediately tapering back off again to look at sizes, designs, textures, and fossils. Our last spread gives us an overview of development, looking at a chicken for the birds, a salmon for the fish/reptiles, and a grasshopper for the insect world.
Such a beautiful book.
Thursday, May 14, 2015
New Arrivals: Juv Nonfiction: A Nest Is Noisy, Diana Hutts Aston, Sylvia Long
By the duo that did An Egg is Quiet, which I should also review at some point - it's delightful as well, and goes beautifully with this new one.
A Nest is Noisy
Dianna Hutts Aston, illustrated by Sylvia Long
ISBN: 9781452127132
Double sets of end-papers, y'all! The outer set (the actual physical endpapers) are a beautiful tangle of nest material, and the inner set is a spread of all the types of nests (labeled!) that are featured in the actual book.
Books like this make me despair of becoming a good writer myself eventually, because I find myself without the words to explain how beautiful and delightful this book is. The text is luminous, the examples concrete and quirky. The illustrations are expressive and individualized, but are also representational and specific. The flow of the narrative is often clunky in nonfiction, but here we travel smoothly from types of nest (and the notation that nests don't require birds) through environments and habitats, all with specific paragraph-or-longer descriptions of specific animal nests with pertinent information and quirky factoids, through to the end where the beautiful luminous poetry of the overall narrative flow picks back up and carries us to the very end - a quiet nest nestled into an oak branchlet against a dusky sky.
So beautiful. I just love that there are beautiful creations like this for kids to look at and to learn about and appreciate the wonders around them.
A Nest is Noisy
Dianna Hutts Aston, illustrated by Sylvia Long
ISBN: 9781452127132
Double sets of end-papers, y'all! The outer set (the actual physical endpapers) are a beautiful tangle of nest material, and the inner set is a spread of all the types of nests (labeled!) that are featured in the actual book.
Books like this make me despair of becoming a good writer myself eventually, because I find myself without the words to explain how beautiful and delightful this book is. The text is luminous, the examples concrete and quirky. The illustrations are expressive and individualized, but are also representational and specific. The flow of the narrative is often clunky in nonfiction, but here we travel smoothly from types of nest (and the notation that nests don't require birds) through environments and habitats, all with specific paragraph-or-longer descriptions of specific animal nests with pertinent information and quirky factoids, through to the end where the beautiful luminous poetry of the overall narrative flow picks back up and carries us to the very end - a quiet nest nestled into an oak branchlet against a dusky sky.
So beautiful. I just love that there are beautiful creations like this for kids to look at and to learn about and appreciate the wonders around them.
Saturday, September 13, 2014
Early Reader: The Silver Balloon, Susan Bonners
The Silver Balloon
Susan Bonners
ISBN: 0374369135
Read Sept 11, 2014.
JuvFiction: A city boy sends a helium balloon "message in a bottle" and strikes up a correspondence and mystery gift exchange with the elderly farmer who finds it, learning confidence (and research skills) in the process.
This was really cute, and really short. I especially liked the author's end-note about not letting balloons go in real life, due to the potential harm to wild animals and to avoid litter in the natural environment.
Greg gets (and sends) various 'mystery items' through the post from his friend, and uses relatives and friends of the family and research trips to the library to figure out what they all are. I especially loved that the librarian featured so strongly and positively in this story, and that she and her relative in the natural museum are the key to solving the final mystery, and bringing Greg and his pen-pal together.
Super cute, and great for kids interested in nature and natural history especially.
Susan Bonners
ISBN: 0374369135
Read Sept 11, 2014.
JuvFiction: A city boy sends a helium balloon "message in a bottle" and strikes up a correspondence and mystery gift exchange with the elderly farmer who finds it, learning confidence (and research skills) in the process.
This was really cute, and really short. I especially liked the author's end-note about not letting balloons go in real life, due to the potential harm to wild animals and to avoid litter in the natural environment.
Greg gets (and sends) various 'mystery items' through the post from his friend, and uses relatives and friends of the family and research trips to the library to figure out what they all are. I especially loved that the librarian featured so strongly and positively in this story, and that she and her relative in the natural museum are the key to solving the final mystery, and bringing Greg and his pen-pal together.
Super cute, and great for kids interested in nature and natural history especially.
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