Got some very nice naturalist/nature books newly in to the library and wanted to show them off for our parents: all of them got checked out afterwards by storytimers!
Out of School and Into Nature: the Anna Comstock Story
Suzanne Slade, illustrated by Jessica Lanan
ISBN: 9781585369867
Biography of famous early American naturalist and scientist Anna Comstock, and her crusade to learn more about the natural world, and to share it with students in the most inspiring and personal ways possible. A BIT pedantic at times, but overall very nicely presented. The illustrations and text effects are very attractively done.
Fantastic Flowers
Susan Stockdale
ISBN: 9781561459520
Such a clever and cute nonfiction book! Very light on the text, but takes longer to read because the kids were really interested and invested in the concepts. Stockdale takes a whole lot of plants with evocative names, and illustrates them in a way that really foregrounds the name-sake. The pictures are beautiful and vibrant and enormous, and there are actual photographs of the flowers at the end of the book. Really well done.
Lola Plants a Garden
Anna McQuinn, illustrated by Rosalind Beardshaw
ISBN: 9781580896948
I love Lola and her little brother, and the stories Anna tells about them are just perfect. This time Lola is inspired by the Mary Mary Quite Contrary nursery rhyme, and uses that as the basis for her own flower garden that she designs and implements step by step with Mommy and Daddy (using resource books from the library, of course!) and then celebrates with friends and garden veggies.
Showing posts with label nature. Show all posts
Showing posts with label nature. Show all posts
Tuesday, August 15, 2017
Tuesday, March 15, 2016
Tuesday Storytime; Spring through the Seasons
A trio of very nice books that hit on all the seasons changing, but all with some level of focus on springtime.
Outside Your Window: A First Book of Nature
Nicola Davies, illustrated by Mark Hearld
ISBN: 9780763655495
Book of short meditations on natural occurances through the seasons.
This is a LONG book - it's a large-format picture-book, mostly in spreads (lovely lovely spreads) with about 10 or so rhymes or short lyrical descriptions of events or sights to see in that particular season. I read one each from Summer, Fall, and Winter, and then read most of Spring (skipping the first set, the sea-gulls, which are more of a summer thing for us, and the lamb's tails, mostly because it was my least favorite, and I had to cut so many for time). The little short poems or stories are sweet and nature-based, and each is tangible and specific, and grounded in the beautiful large painterly spreads. Excellent for this age-group in small doses, and would be perfect to use repeatedly through the year as the different seasons come and go.
Listen, Listen
Phillis Gershator, illustrated by Alison Jay
ISBN: 9781846860843
Rounded cameo paintings fill the centers of the pages, with the poem unfolding around the edges.
I like this one, but I had to tape off the last few pages, because it pretty seamlessly merges into a more interactive "seek and find" section at the very end, encouraging readers to search the pages "Where's Waldo"-style to find various animals or items. The conceit here is using the sounds of each season to make a throughline - which works fairly well for some seasons; summer is all bugs, fall is leaves and nuts, and spring is birds chirping away, but winter was a bit of a reach, and some of the inclusions to make the rhyme scheme work seem a bit forced. Overall, it's sweet and an interesting approach to sensing the seasons instead of looking at them.
Old Bear
Kevin Henkes
ISBN: 9780061552052
Bear falls asleep and dreams of technicolor fever-dream seasons, before waking into a delightful real spring.
The ONLY objection I have to this adorable book is that the bear comes out of hibernation in the full bloom of riotous spring (for the narrative to work well) and that's not in the least accurate. Despite that one niggle, this is a beautiful book that showcases dreams and imagination, and reads quickly and clearly. The colors and stylization of the dream spreads are simply gorgeous, and the bear is roly-poly and fuzzy and adorable. Excellent length to be either an ending book or a middle book between two not-as-long offerings.
Tuesday, February 2, 2016
Tuesday Storytime: Outside in the Snow
This is our last week of snowy storytimes - it would have been the whole month of January, but we had a short side-track into Italian celebrations last week.
These ended up being a leeeeeetle bit on the long side; there was much squirming and chattering of very young ones through the last story, and I was tempted to rush or elide, but I held strong and did the whole thing. I think it's good for the littlest kids to be challenged a little bit past their comfort zones sometimes, and what better time for an easy non-stressful challenge than a storytime?
The Longest Night
Marion Dane Bauer, illustrated by Ted Lewin
ISBN: 9780823420544
Forest animals pledge to bring back the sun during a long winter night, but only the chickadee's song works.
This was very beautiful, but I think a little bit too lyrical and mystical for the little kids to grasp. Almost like a fairy tale or a creation myth, with the animals taking on archetypes and the wind acting as a guide and mentor. The winter night has been going on for far too long, and so first the crow, then the moose, then the fox all try to use their various abilities to bring back the sun. Nothing works until the small chickadee offers the only thing she can do: to sing her song "dee dee dee." The animals mock her efforts until the sun rouses, curious about the singing, and brings the morning and the spring. Strangely solemn and almost religious, this tale feels old and hoary and mythological.
Outside
Deirdre Gill
ISBN: 9780547910659
A boy has fantastical adventures in the snowy landscape outside his house.
The only thing I don't like about this book is that there are occasional wordless pages or spreads, and while that is fine in an entirely wordless book, or even in some books where the page-turning impulse carries the storyteller and the audience past the wordless sections on the strength of what came before, this tale is so slight and wispy that the wordless pages just sort of hang listless in the narrative. I was tempted to narrate them, and I did at least comment on the illustrations, which I usually don't do mid-story, but I needed something to keep the tempo at least moving forward. Other than that, this is a sweet middling-short story about a boy using his imagination and hard work to create fantastical playgrounds in the snow.
Over and Under the Snow
Kate Messner, illustrated by Christopher Silas Neal
ISBN: 9780811867849
A boy skiis and has a cookout in a wintry landscape, while learning about all the creatures living or sleeping below the blanket of snow.
This is the one the littles got restless through, and it was a bit of a slog. It's longer than it seems, and it is hard to pick up the tempo - it WANTS to be slow and gentle and cool like snow in the woods, and trying to hurry it along didn't really work very well. Our boy skiis and wanders in the woods and talks about various woodland creatures living in or under the snow, as he goes through a VERY LONG day before settling into bed himself. Factual enough to qualify as nonfiction, there's an author's note at the end about the various animals and how they manage to live and thrive under the snow.
These ended up being a leeeeeetle bit on the long side; there was much squirming and chattering of very young ones through the last story, and I was tempted to rush or elide, but I held strong and did the whole thing. I think it's good for the littlest kids to be challenged a little bit past their comfort zones sometimes, and what better time for an easy non-stressful challenge than a storytime?
The Longest Night
Marion Dane Bauer, illustrated by Ted Lewin
ISBN: 9780823420544
Forest animals pledge to bring back the sun during a long winter night, but only the chickadee's song works.
This was very beautiful, but I think a little bit too lyrical and mystical for the little kids to grasp. Almost like a fairy tale or a creation myth, with the animals taking on archetypes and the wind acting as a guide and mentor. The winter night has been going on for far too long, and so first the crow, then the moose, then the fox all try to use their various abilities to bring back the sun. Nothing works until the small chickadee offers the only thing she can do: to sing her song "dee dee dee." The animals mock her efforts until the sun rouses, curious about the singing, and brings the morning and the spring. Strangely solemn and almost religious, this tale feels old and hoary and mythological.
Outside
Deirdre Gill
ISBN: 9780547910659
A boy has fantastical adventures in the snowy landscape outside his house.
The only thing I don't like about this book is that there are occasional wordless pages or spreads, and while that is fine in an entirely wordless book, or even in some books where the page-turning impulse carries the storyteller and the audience past the wordless sections on the strength of what came before, this tale is so slight and wispy that the wordless pages just sort of hang listless in the narrative. I was tempted to narrate them, and I did at least comment on the illustrations, which I usually don't do mid-story, but I needed something to keep the tempo at least moving forward. Other than that, this is a sweet middling-short story about a boy using his imagination and hard work to create fantastical playgrounds in the snow.
Over and Under the Snow
Kate Messner, illustrated by Christopher Silas Neal
ISBN: 9780811867849
A boy skiis and has a cookout in a wintry landscape, while learning about all the creatures living or sleeping below the blanket of snow.
This is the one the littles got restless through, and it was a bit of a slog. It's longer than it seems, and it is hard to pick up the tempo - it WANTS to be slow and gentle and cool like snow in the woods, and trying to hurry it along didn't really work very well. Our boy skiis and wanders in the woods and talks about various woodland creatures living in or under the snow, as he goes through a VERY LONG day before settling into bed himself. Factual enough to qualify as nonfiction, there's an author's note at the end about the various animals and how they manage to live and thrive under the snow.
Monday, August 31, 2015
New Arrivals: Picture Book: A Leaf Can Be... by Laura Purdie Salas & Violeta Dabija
A Leaf Can Be... ("sequel" to the beautiful A Rock Can Be... reviewed earlier in the year)
Laura Purdie Salas, illustrated by Violeta Dabija
ISBN: 9780761362036
Soft-edged watercolors with bright splashes of natural colors, and lots and lots of green.
I have to admit up front that I didn't like this one as much as I loved A Rock Can Be, but it's still a really lovely book. I wish it had shown up a week earlier, as I would have used it in my most recent storytime.
Like the previous installment, we're looking at quirky (and rhyming!) uses of leaves, benefits of leaves, characteristics of leaves, and even emotional resonances of leaves. It's quite lovely, and reminded me strongly of the simple feel of A Tree is Nice.
Laura Purdie Salas, illustrated by Violeta Dabija
ISBN: 9780761362036
Soft-edged watercolors with bright splashes of natural colors, and lots and lots of green.
I have to admit up front that I didn't like this one as much as I loved A Rock Can Be, but it's still a really lovely book. I wish it had shown up a week earlier, as I would have used it in my most recent storytime.
Like the previous installment, we're looking at quirky (and rhyming!) uses of leaves, benefits of leaves, characteristics of leaves, and even emotional resonances of leaves. It's quite lovely, and reminded me strongly of the simple feel of A Tree is Nice.
Wednesday, August 26, 2015
Nonfiction: How to Raise a Wild Child, by Scott D. Sampson
How to Raise a Wild Child
Scott D. Sampson
ISBN: 9780544279322
Read June, 2015
Discusses the importance of the natural world to child development and personal happiness.
I think I was expecting this to be a bit more about child development, and less of a personal journey, but I enjoyed the journey nonetheless, and Sampson's voice was clear and passionate all through the book. The science was a bit slim, but there were copious references to other books (some of which I'd actually already read) to handle that angle.
Basically this is one guy's love letter to nature, and why he feels like it has made him a better person, and why he feels like it will help to make every person better and happier. His enthusiasm and passion are hard to argue with, but he does make some assumptions about people being outdoors that I think are based on his own personal interests and aren't quite as universal as he would like to believe they are.
Still, the overall points are well-meant and much needed - even if you don't totally fall in love with bird-watching in your backyard, or don't end up taking camping trips to celebrate milestones with California hippies, it's important to have a deeper and more positive relationship with our world.
Scott D. Sampson
ISBN: 9780544279322
Read June, 2015
Discusses the importance of the natural world to child development and personal happiness.
I think I was expecting this to be a bit more about child development, and less of a personal journey, but I enjoyed the journey nonetheless, and Sampson's voice was clear and passionate all through the book. The science was a bit slim, but there were copious references to other books (some of which I'd actually already read) to handle that angle.
Basically this is one guy's love letter to nature, and why he feels like it has made him a better person, and why he feels like it will help to make every person better and happier. His enthusiasm and passion are hard to argue with, but he does make some assumptions about people being outdoors that I think are based on his own personal interests and aren't quite as universal as he would like to believe they are.
Still, the overall points are well-meant and much needed - even if you don't totally fall in love with bird-watching in your backyard, or don't end up taking camping trips to celebrate milestones with California hippies, it's important to have a deeper and more positive relationship with our world.
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.
Wednesday, January 14, 2015
Storytime Potential: Maple, by Lori Nichols
This book came in through delivery, and the cover was so cute, I just had to flip through it. I'm glad I did, because it's very cute naturey, seasonal, big-sistery book that is sweet and short and perfect to slot into a lot of different themed storytimes.
Maple
Lori Nichols
ISBN: 9780399160851
An almost Precious Moments art-style with calm colors and minimalist backgrounds.
Maple is a sweet girl, and fairly happy with life, and especially happy with her tree - the Maple that was planted when she was born. It's her partner, her friend. She lends it her coat in winter, and plays in the shade in summer. She does wish she had a more active friend, and maple (the tree) does seem a bit lonely out there in the yard by herself. So Maple is surprised and delighted when a new tree starts sprouting next to maple, and Maple's mom gets pregnant, then delivers a baby sister! Maple and her new sister now both like to rest in maple's shade, waiting for W/willow to grow up enough to play.
Adorable, sweet, no conflict. Can't wait to use it. Would work well with On Meadowview Street, or with Kevin Henke's Chrysanthemum.
Maple
Lori Nichols
ISBN: 9780399160851
An almost Precious Moments art-style with calm colors and minimalist backgrounds.
Maple is a sweet girl, and fairly happy with life, and especially happy with her tree - the Maple that was planted when she was born. It's her partner, her friend. She lends it her coat in winter, and plays in the shade in summer. She does wish she had a more active friend, and maple (the tree) does seem a bit lonely out there in the yard by herself. So Maple is surprised and delighted when a new tree starts sprouting next to maple, and Maple's mom gets pregnant, then delivers a baby sister! Maple and her new sister now both like to rest in maple's shade, waiting for W/willow to grow up enough to play.
Adorable, sweet, no conflict. Can't wait to use it. Would work well with On Meadowview Street, or with Kevin Henke's Chrysanthemum.
Monday, December 1, 2014
New Picture Books: Winter is Coming, Tony Johnston
I saw a review for this earlier in the year, and have been waiting for it ever since. I'm happy to say that while it isn't what I expected, it is absolutely beautiful, an amazing message, and a delight to read and pore over the illustrations.
Winter is Coming
Tony Johnston, illustrated by Jim LaMarche (The Carpenter's Gift)
ISBN: 9781442472518
Breathtaking colored pencil, acrylic, and ink artwork is utterly entrancing. Beautiful.
This book is SOOOO PRETTY! The premise is pretty slim - a naturalist girl (armed with sketchpads, binoculars, and notebooks) heads out into the woods as fall changes to winter, watching and recording the behaviors and appearances of the animals as they prepare for the rough season ahead. Some of the thoughts and comments are a little bit stilted or odd, coming supposedly from a pre-pubescent narrator, but that is easily forgiven considering the underlying messages of peaceful observation, of awareness of the cycles and lives of animals in their natural habitats, and of conservation and protection.
But you guys, this book is flat out, drop dead, utterly breathtakingly heart-rendingly GORGEOUS. The colors, the girl in her varied outfits as the days pass by, the animals and birds, the sketchy but detailed woods and fields. Just makes my heart ache that I can't draw.
Unreservedly recommended.
Winter is Coming
Tony Johnston, illustrated by Jim LaMarche (The Carpenter's Gift)
ISBN: 9781442472518
Breathtaking colored pencil, acrylic, and ink artwork is utterly entrancing. Beautiful.
This book is SOOOO PRETTY! The premise is pretty slim - a naturalist girl (armed with sketchpads, binoculars, and notebooks) heads out into the woods as fall changes to winter, watching and recording the behaviors and appearances of the animals as they prepare for the rough season ahead. Some of the thoughts and comments are a little bit stilted or odd, coming supposedly from a pre-pubescent narrator, but that is easily forgiven considering the underlying messages of peaceful observation, of awareness of the cycles and lives of animals in their natural habitats, and of conservation and protection.
But you guys, this book is flat out, drop dead, utterly breathtakingly heart-rendingly GORGEOUS. The colors, the girl in her varied outfits as the days pass by, the animals and birds, the sketchy but detailed woods and fields. Just makes my heart ache that I can't draw.
Unreservedly recommended.
Tuesday, October 14, 2014
Tuesday Storytime: The Natural World
These three aren't hugely close to each other in content, but taken as a whole, they provide a nice gentle nonfiction progression through nature. A good informational fit for a rainy, blustery, southern-fall day.
Squish! A Wetland Walk
Nancy Luenn, illustrated by Ronald Himler
ISBN: 0689318421
Scribbly muted watercolor washed landscapes in dull earthy fall colors.
This is a very low-key book. The narrative uses a child in a bright yellow rain-slicker and an older jeans-and-flannel dressed companion as our entry into a gentle and general description of a wetlands, of what it is like, what lives there, why wetlands are important for people to protect, and what they provide for the creatures who live in them. It's not energetic, it's not overly beautiful, but the simple descriptions and flowing watery smudgy artwork makes this a lovely calm informative nonfiction picture book encounter.
Underground
Denise Fleming
ISBN: 9781442458826
Gritty colorful underground cutaway-views of burrows and stratification and various critters.
Fleming is a delight. I don't think I've encountered a single story of hers that I didn't love to page through and exclaim over the amazing number of details hidden in her deceptively crude blocky colorful pages. In this one, we start with a bird, but immediately fall "low down way down under ground" to explore tunnels and burrows and nests and caches and cocoons and ground strata and any number of (totally unmentioned) human artifacts nestled into the embrace of the earth, or being dug into them (we see buried toys and tools, a small potted plant being set into a hole, and a larger tree-root-ball being watered). All of this with the most minimal text possible, and with a variety of animal and insect life represented on the progression of spreads. Excellent guide to the identities of the creatures forms the last spread, and don't forget to check out the endpapers for even more buried treasures.
Step Gently Out
Helen Frost, photographs by Rick Lieder
ISBN: 9780763656010
Forced-close perspective photographs of insects against artistic and muted blurred backgrounds.
Even though there are not one, but TWO whole pages with a spider (the one in Fleming's Underground is small enough and sidelined enough for me to ignore), I think I like this book best of today's trio. A gentle cadence of relaxing commentary introduces various insects (and spiders) but remains unobtrusive against the truly beautiful photography on display here. Again, don't forget to spare a look at the front and back endpages - they're different from each other, and also stunning photographs. Lieder should be proud of his beautiful and entrancing work introducing young people to the smaller creatures we share our planet with.
Squish! A Wetland Walk
Nancy Luenn, illustrated by Ronald Himler
ISBN: 0689318421
Scribbly muted watercolor washed landscapes in dull earthy fall colors.
This is a very low-key book. The narrative uses a child in a bright yellow rain-slicker and an older jeans-and-flannel dressed companion as our entry into a gentle and general description of a wetlands, of what it is like, what lives there, why wetlands are important for people to protect, and what they provide for the creatures who live in them. It's not energetic, it's not overly beautiful, but the simple descriptions and flowing watery smudgy artwork makes this a lovely calm informative nonfiction picture book encounter.
Underground
Denise Fleming
ISBN: 9781442458826
Gritty colorful underground cutaway-views of burrows and stratification and various critters.
Fleming is a delight. I don't think I've encountered a single story of hers that I didn't love to page through and exclaim over the amazing number of details hidden in her deceptively crude blocky colorful pages. In this one, we start with a bird, but immediately fall "low down way down under ground" to explore tunnels and burrows and nests and caches and cocoons and ground strata and any number of (totally unmentioned) human artifacts nestled into the embrace of the earth, or being dug into them (we see buried toys and tools, a small potted plant being set into a hole, and a larger tree-root-ball being watered). All of this with the most minimal text possible, and with a variety of animal and insect life represented on the progression of spreads. Excellent guide to the identities of the creatures forms the last spread, and don't forget to check out the endpapers for even more buried treasures.
Step Gently Out
Helen Frost, photographs by Rick Lieder
ISBN: 9780763656010
Forced-close perspective photographs of insects against artistic and muted blurred backgrounds.
Even though there are not one, but TWO whole pages with a spider (the one in Fleming's Underground is small enough and sidelined enough for me to ignore), I think I like this book best of today's trio. A gentle cadence of relaxing commentary introduces various insects (and spiders) but remains unobtrusive against the truly beautiful photography on display here. Again, don't forget to spare a look at the front and back endpages - they're different from each other, and also stunning photographs. Lieder should be proud of his beautiful and entrancing work introducing young people to the smaller creatures we share our planet with.
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