Forest Explorer: A Life-sized Field Guide was a terrific recent find at my library. Our family often walks in woodland areas and this simple field guide has already answered many of our questions about the common critters we see. Some of which we’ve seen for years and never known what they were!
For each season, Nic Bishop includes a fantastic two-page, life-sized photo scene with many of the common insects and animals you might see in places like the leafy understory, treetops, edge of the woods and even at night. The animals are in the habitat where they would normally be found giving you clues about where to look during your nature walk.
After the photo spread, another two-page spread follows that identifies and describes each of the 20 or so critters included on the previous pages. In all, there are seven different photo scenes that will help you identify well over 100 woodland creatures! This is the perfect field guide for younger children with its clear pictures and simple descriptions.
The author has included tips about keeping a nature journal, what to watch for each season and a pictorial index, too. All of this in 48 pages. Now, since it’s life-sized it is a little more cumbersome to carry around on a nature walk than other field guides, but I think you’ll find that the large size is worth it!
Keeping a nature journal or nature notebook is a very personal thing. Some people prefer a blank-paged notebook, while others prefer a lined composition book, and still others prefer to use prepared notebooking pages. Some people like to simply draw sketches with a label or two, while others enjoy journaling full pages alongside their drawings.
No matter what your nature notebooking style, the important thing is that at least some of your nature walks involve a nature journal. Why? Besides the obvious academic answers that nature journals incorporate art, writing, science, history and maybe even math, is an even bigger answer. A nature journal helps us really slow down and make those detailed discoveries about the world around us. Discoveries like:
who lives in a habitat
how a plant/animal/season changes
how ecosystems interact
what parts make up a plant or animal
the list could go on and on
Nature journals also help us keep records. After some time keeping a journal, we can become familiar with which wildflowers bloom in May vs. August, or which animals should begin migrating in October, for instance.
There is no perfect “how-to” for keeping a nature journal. However, if you’re hoping to see a clearer picture in your mind of how you might begin, Clare Walker Leslie is the first example that comes to mind. I remember the day I first checked out Drawn to Nature by Ms. Leslie from the library. It was so inspiring to see how beautifully, yet how simply she keeps her journal!
I’ve had the pleasure of reviewing two of Clare Walker Leslie’s nature books, and I’d like to share them with you.
The pages are organized for you in categories such as the moon, sky, animals, plants, views through a window, and special places. Each page shows you how Ms. Leslie sketches what she sees and writes small notes to remind herself of important details like the date, weather and what might be happening.
You see how different days call for different materials. Some sketches are made with a pen, while others are made with colored pencils. Within this book, many of the sketches have been colored in with watercolors. Very beautiful indeed!
What I like most is that the drawings aren’t perfect. Don’t get me wrong, she’s quite an artist, but the book doesn’t make you feel like she’s accomplished something that you can’t do. It’s very easy to use her example and create your own similar sketches. Most importantly, this book is your example and inspiration, rather than a how-to.
Pen and watercolor flowers
Noting the sky over time
Keeping a Nature Journalby Clare Walker Leslie and Charles Roth is directed more toward the adult, but I’ve used the examples on many occasions with my children.
This is more of a how-to book. Chapters teach you through written instruction and plenty of examples how to get started with a nature notebook and how to keep going through each season. There’s even an entire section dedicated to teaching children how to draw and journal in nature.
Hints are given on everything from possible notebooks you might choose as your journal to the variety of materials you might pack with which to draw or paint. Examples are provided for using each medium, as well as many varied styles of notebooking. For example, you’ll see very simple pencil sketches with a quick note about the subject as one example. Then also see detailed drawings that might include a page or more of writing to go along with the drawings. No matter what style fits your groove, this book teaches you how to do each.
Keeping a Nature Journal differs from Drawn to Nature in a couple of major ways.
There is a lot more “practicality” to the examples in Keeping a Nature Journal. For instance, I mentioned above that several of the examples in Drawn to Nature included watercolors. In Keeping a Nature Journal, most of the drawings are much more simple and quick (what we really do most of the time in our journals.)
You will leave Keeping a Nature Journal feeling instructed, whereas Drawn to Nature seems more for inspiration.
Both books are awesome in their own ways. Which one you choose will depend on whether you’re looking for inspiration or instruction.
I recently happened upon a new-to-me field guide publisher that I’m loving. Adventure Publications puts out small (4 3/8 x 6″), but jam-packed, guides on all sorts of nature subjects. Most importantly for me, they offer not only general field guides, but many that are state or region specific, too!
Don’t let the fact that they’re compact deceive you – each of the guides include around 300 pages! A large, full-color picture graces the left of each two-page spread, while succinct notes about the animal/plant/constellation are clearly noted on the right. When appropriate, a small map showing range is included on the info page, too.
For review, I received Birds of Kentucky and Night Sky. Both are excellent! Quite honestly, I’ve put off a serious study of birds because other field guides I’ve used simply cover too many birds and I have a hard time identifying them with confidence. The Birds of Kentucky field guide has changed all that! Now I have only four or five blue colored birds, for instance, to choose from (because they are the only ones normally in KY) and my bird identification skills have drastically improved! And I’ll reiterate the fact that actual close-up, nearly life-size photos of the birds are included. The illustrated guide I had been using doesn’t even compare!
In the Night Sky field guide they have separated the book into seasons so that you know which constellations to look for during the year. A bright illustration of the night sky is included for each constellation with the stars pinpointed, labeled with their names, and the constellation drawn in clearly. A graph accompanies each constellation to help you place it in comparison to notable stars like the North Star and the Big Dipper.
On the adjacent info page, you learn such things as where to look in the horizon during each month, the best times to observe it, and fun facts including how it got it’s name. Note that many constellations were named because of mythology, so you will find lots of information about mythology, gods and goddesses. I’ve simply chosen to omit that part of the info and we just use the book to help us locate and recognize things in the night sky. Oh, and a mini night flashlight is included in the back of the book! It shines red so you can see the book at night without having to readjust your eyes over and over!
I’ve found a WONDERFUL card game to help you and your children get to know flower families better!! It’s called Shanleya’s Quest.
***Before I go any further, you need to know: There is a book of the same title that I do not recommend. The book includes both evolutionary and “new age” material. It is not suitable for a Christian family.***
The card game, however, is just lovely!
There are several games to play with the deck of cards, but our favorite happens to be a simple memory style game where you look for flowers that are in the same family. Through the games, you are taught and begin to recognize easily the characteristics that make up the flowers in each family. The aster, grass, lily, mint, mustard, parsley, pea and rose families are covered. HOPS Press even offers some lesson plan ideas to supplement the game.
Because of the actual photographs on the cards, my children are not only recognizing flower families now, but also naming the particular flowers when we see them on a nature walk! This is a two-thumbs up addition to your Wonderful Wildflowers NaturExplorers study!
I’m in love! I’m in love! After reading LOTS (and I mean lots) of books to weed out the best of the best to include in our NaturExplorers units, I have to tell you that it’s very hard to find books that meet all my criteria:
Living, interesting, inspirational
Factual without being dry
Don’t address millions of years
Don’t address a “new age”, “mother earth” philosophy
For some reason, most nature-related books are very drab or quite silly. Not so with the books I’ve had the pleasure of reading from Dawn Publications! They put out fantastic living literature with a passion for nature that meets (and maybe exceeds) the passion Melissa and I have for it.
I can’t attest to whether or not every single book Dawn Publications produces is free of millions of years or mother earth philosophy, but the books I’ve chosen to highlight here are nothing but joyful and inspiring! With each one I’ve read, my children and I have been ready to jump off the couch and head outdoors to explore!
I’ve decided to do a giant Book Buzz to introduce you to my favorites from Dawn Publications. Enjoy!
(Click on the graphics to learn more about each book.)
These are delightful, cumulative, rhyming books for the 4-10 crowd. They are wonderful examples of inquiry and discovery. I especially like that the first two titles have boys as main characters. Believe it or not, it’s hard to find nature-related books with male main characters.
These engaging books for the 4-10 crowd take you on a journey of the life of an acorn, a honey bee and a dandelion. Through a storyline, the books teach you about entire life cycles. Like ALL the Dawn Publications books I’ll mention today, the illustrations are just as good as the text!
If I had to pick a favorite, this would be it! Eliza’s nature-loving aunt helps her niece and some friends catch the excitement of small miracles at the pond. It’s a great book to show you how one person’s enthusiasm for nature can be infectious! I’d recommend it for children 5-12.
The first two books in this section are best suited for 5-12 year-old children. Enjoy The Web at Dragonfly Pond as a father gently teaches his son about food webs as they spend time together fishing on the pond. Salamander Rain is written from the perspective of pre-teens/teens keeping a nature journal at the explore the ponds and lakes in their area. River Song comes with a CD to sing-along with the text of this book about the ways of water flowing from tiny brooks into streams and rivers and finally the ocean. It’s probably most appropriate for children 4-10.
The final two books I’ve had the pleasure of reviewing are best suited for children ages 5-12. A Drop Around the World takes you on a fictional journey around the world describing how the cycle of water means the same rain has probably touched the entire earth at some point. Through rhyming text, people and places of the world, as well as the water cycle, are introduced. Discover the Seasons gives you hints about a some things you might look for during each season, followed by a few seasonal nature activity ideas and recipes.
Many of these books are now noted as featured literature suggestions in appropriate NaturExplorers units, too. I have to admit that I don’t mind this kind of research and will gladly pour over more books like these in hopes to find more treasures for our units!
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Forest Explorer: A Life-sized Field Guide
