The Natural World, Past and Present

Last weekend I participated in about half of the 24 in 48 Readathon. (The second day I just couldn't get interested in reading for some reason so I only got 11 hours done.) The first two books I read were ones sitting on my non-fiction TBR that I wanted to be able to mark as read.

The first is one I just got this past Christmas -- Amazing Rare Things: The Art of Natural History in the Age of Discovery by David Attenborough, Susan Owens, Martin Clayton, and Rea Alexandratos. It focuses on five natural history artists--Leonardo da Vinci, Cassiano dal Pozzo, Alexander Marshal, Maria Sybilla Merian, and Mark Catesby--and their works that are now held in the Royal Collection. They each represent a period in time, from about 1470-1730.

I am intrigued by natural history artists and actually have five prints hanging over my tv (that are rotated in from a collection I have -- right now they are a squid, a crab, a pineapple, an octopus, and molluscs). It was interesting to read about the diverse backgrounds of each of these artists and about what inspired them to draw. This isn't a super comprehensive natural history art book but more a snapshot of the works of a few prolific pioneers.

Then I read Jane Goodall's 50 Years at Gombe, which has been on my shelves for a few years now (the 50 years was in 2010). If you are a Goodall fan, most of the information and history in the book will be a review but it's a nice collection of some of the National Geographic photographs that brought Jane to the world's attention and some more recent photos of the land and the current chimps. (I happen to own the original August 1963 Nat Geo that first featured the chimpanzees.) This book is great for a basic overview and a call to action. It lists many of the organizations that are supported by the Jane Goodall Institute and the ways for people all around the world to make a difference in the lives of the chimpanzees and the humans around them. I was extremely happy to hear that my best friend donated to the Institute this year instead of sending me Christmas presents. (I donated to the Reteti Elephant Sanctuary instead of shopping for her.)

Have you read any great nature/natural history books lately?

Returning to the roots,

K

Picture Books To Teach 1000 and More Lessons

Sometimes I wish that I was homeschooling Z because there are so many fantastic non-fiction picture books out there that I could use in a variety of subjects.

There are books about science like

Electrical Wizard: How Nikola Tesla Lit Up the World, written by Elizabeth Rusch, illustrated by Oliver Dominguez, might not fully represent the handsomeness of this scientist but it does portray the hard work and genius of the man. It starts with Tesla's childhood in Serbia (including the name of his cat), moves through his college years and finishes with his professional life. It also has six pages of history and science at the end and a great bibliography.

There are books about math like

Mesmerizing Math by Jonathan Litton and Thomas Flintham is a totally amazing flap-and-tab book that gives a quick introduction to dozens of math concepts, from geometry to tessellation. Z was fascinated by this book and all of its hidden information. I like that it makes math fun and accessible. This book obviously won't teach kids everything they need to know about the diverse ideas (it's only 16 pages long), but it will give kids a familiarity with concepts and terms that should help later when they reach these concepts in their studies.

There are books about animals like

and

The Organic Bug Book by Chris Korrow (farmer) attempts to get kids to look past the ick factor that they may have learned from squeamish parents to the true usefulness and fascinating qualities of a variety of insects. Not all bugs are welcomed by farmers but many are grouped together unfairly with the true pests. This book tries to clear up some of the misconceptions and to celebrate the diversity of insects.

Marije Tolman (artist) and Jesse Goossens' (writer) Jumping Penguins is a beautiful tribute to the many amazing qualities of animals that one might see at a zoo. The artwork is not realistic (bats have bandages, polar bears are painting and there's a blue whale on a scale) but the book is oh so fun and the facts might be ones that you haven't heard before -- bison can jump six feet vertically, polar bears are left-handed and caterpillars throw their poop away from their bodies to confuse wasps that would want to eat them.  This would be a fantastic gift book as well because it's just so attractive!

And there are books about places like

This beautiful duo from Charlotte Dematons, Holland and A Thousand Things About Holland (with text by Jesse Goossens), give a wonderful introduction to a beautiful country. One is a book without words, simply presenting Holland from the water through the busy cities and on to the countryside. It has many details that should give young readers an idea of the things that make Holland unique. The other is, well, a book of a thousand pieces of information and literature about Holland's history, weather, cities, people, art and more told from the unique perspective of Dematons, who was born in France but studied art in Amsterdam. Obviously, with 1000 "things", there's a lot to learn about Holland, especially for kids with little previous exposure to the country.

Luckily, there are no limits on where one can learn, so we can bring all of these books into our home anyway (and you might want some of them in your home too).

Learning the fun and colorful way,
K and Z

New Release: A California Bestiary

If you have a nature-loving reader on your gift list, you might consider buying the small but fascinating A California Bestiary, written by Rebecca Solnit and illustrated by muralist Mona Caron.  In conjunction with the Oakland Zoo and their renewed attempts to highlight native species, this book was inspired by medieval bestiaries and works to bring the magic and majesty back to our view of California's species, both thriving and endangered.  This book highlights one dozen fascinating animals including the California condor, the Elephant seal and the Monarch butterfly.  Sadly, it also presents one animal that has already been driven to extinction -- the California grizzly, the animal on the state flag and state seal.

The first thing I noticed about this book was that the illustrations are detailed but don't feel "scientific".  They aren't the illustrations of Audubon but instead have a slightly more fictional feel.  The outlines are dark, the colors are brilliant and the backgrounds are simple.  And yet I definitely feel that I would recognize these animals in the wild.

The text also has a more informal feel -- more like a journalistic essay than a stodgy paper.  There are facts (presented in sentence form, not bullet-pointed lists) but also first-person anecdotes that really make this a fun read.  My degree is in zoology so I've definitely read my share of dull animal papers!  And even I learned some fascinating new animal facts from this book and have a greater appreciation for these creatures of my birth state.

This book will release in April.

Hoping we find room to live together,
K


Support our site and buy A California Bestiary on Amazon or find it at your local library. We viewed an electronic galley copy.

Animal Fun in Small Doses

Z's favorite magazine right now is National Geographic Little Kids. Not only do they have access to the beautiful photography of the National Geographic archives, but they have the resources to put out a beautiful, colorful magazine every other month. They put a lot of focus on young animals and family units. Right now, Z's favorite part of Kids are the six collectable animal cards that come with the bi-monthly publication. We have a small photo album that we have made into his "scientist" book and he puts away the cards each time and looks through the whole album again. He knows almost as many species of animal as I do -- and I have a Zoology degree!

National Geographic also has a Kids magazine for ages 6 to 14 (10 issues a year) and a fantastic website for all kids.

Learning about obscure animals,
K and Z


Buy a subscription to National Geographic Little Kids or National Geographic Kids from the National Geographic Society for only $15 a year.

An Evening of Science

As I have said before, Z is a big fan of animals and I have my degree in zoology. In our house, there are two books that are big go-tos for our animal learning. Tonight we had to find pictures of whale sharks (the world's largest fish) and blue whales (the world's largest mammal) to find out just how big they can get.

The first is the National Geographic Encyclopedia of Animals. Z got this for Christmas from his grandparents in 1996 when he was 2! This is a smaller book but has a lot of great information and, of course, the photography is amazing. It also has a lot of correct animal drawings which I think are important for kids to see because scientists don't always have a photograph to go from when they are trying to identify an animal. It's about 250 pages so it's not totally in depth but just right for a curious kid.

The second book that we go to is much larger -- the 600 page Animal: The Definitive Visual Guide to the World's Wildlife. This book is put out by the Smithsonian Institute and Z can barely lift it. He got this one for his third birthday. It has many more specific species examples listed and good sections on habitats and zoology topics like evolution, anatomy and behavior. There are fantastic large action photographs and good location maps for the species. We love animals!

Swimming, leaping and growling,
K and Z


Buy Encyclopedia of Animals and Animal on Amazon or find them at your local library.

Library Visit Number One

Z and I took our first trip of the summer to the local library today. I tried to take him a couple of weeks ago but he said "no library ... bookstore". He loves to read books over and over and so he likes to own them. I'm guessing we are going to have to purchase at least one of the library books we borrowed today. I understand his feelings -- I too like to be able to pull out my favorite books on a whim. It's no different than owning a DVD, I suppose.

The first book he chose for himself was Tiger, Tiger by Dee Lillegard and illustrated by Susan Guevara. I thought, "that's strange, sounds like William Blake" and sure enough they had the first stanza of the poem, "The Tyger", before the story. The story itself interprets the poem into a tale about a young boy who imagines up a tiger and then, when it becomes too intimidating, imagines it away again while seeing the tiger in himself. The story tries to have its own prose style but I find that it loses its flow. I know that Z chose the book because he likes tigers but I think that he seemed to understand that this tiger was more abstract, symbolic even. No really, he did.

I picked out Yo-Yo Man by Daniel Pinkwater, mostly because I have read his writings about other authors -- and enjoyed them -- but hadn't read any of his own books. Z was excited about the book -- he used to have a yo-yo but then the cat ate the string -- but once we got home, he decided that he was against reading it. This happens sometimes with him. We get a book or a movie on Netflix and he absolutely refuses to try it out. Sometimes it's just a matter of time and he will eventually become curious and pick it up. Other times, he holds an unexplained grudge against the book or movie (or song) forever. We will have to wait and see with this book but I will probably keep it around longer than the others to give it a chance.

Z is also very fond of board books. Today we picked up From Head to Toe, another gem from Eric Carle. This one is great because it teaches body parts by incorporating movement and using animal examples. I'm not sure that any kid is a bigger fan of Eric Carle than Z is. I have even considered getting Z the bedding that I found on Carle's website. The first book Z learned to read was Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? So, as you can probably guess, we have already read this new book half a dozen times today and will read it many more times before I sneak it back to the library. And the next time we are at the bookstore, I can almost guarantee you that he will find it on the shelf and pick it up.

Until next time,
K and Z


Buy Tiger, Tiger, Yo-Yo Man and From Head to Toe on Amazon or, by all means, find them at your local library.

A new surprise every month

One thing Z loves is something new to read as frequently as possible. A nice way to achieve this is with a magazine subscription (or three, like we happen to have at the moment). The current favorite around our house is Wild Animal Baby. This magazine is put out by the charitable, educational National Wildlife Federation. It's a great little magazine that comes on a heavy cardstock weight paper so it's pretty sturdy -- you can keep it around for a while if you so choose. Our house is currently cluttered with almost two years of these! We also usually have one or two in the car. It's marked for ages 0 to 4 and has fantastic photographs, illustrations and activities. They also put out magazines for the "3 to 7" and "7 and up" age ranges.
Another benefit of the magazine subcription is the surprise factor. Z gets so excited when he gets his own mail and sometimes even asks for it when we go out to check the mail. How cute do you think a little guy is when he says "magazine day?"!

Until next time,
K and Z


Purchase a subscription to Wild Animal Baby on Amazon or direct from the National Wildlife Federation.

"Animals move in different ways."

A few years ago we took Z to Toys R Us and, for the first time, he picked out a book all on his own. This was Tails by Matthew Van Fleet. It is an adorable book that appeals to the youngest of toddlers because of the textures and flaps in the book. The animals are well-drawn and very cute. It has long staying power too as the kids learn some of the vocabulary of the book like "spiny" and "broad". After a while, though, we wanted something a bit more advanced.


We chose What Do You Do With a Tail Like This? by Steve Jenkins & Robin Page. This book has an introductory page for each body part (i.e. nose) with five close-ups and then the next page has a one sentence description for each one that identifies each animal and what they do with their unique appendage. It has paper-cut illustrations that are quite stunning. Beware if you are squeamish though -- there are lovely tidbits such as the fact that horned lizards shoot blood out of their eyes. Oddly enough, it doesn't say why. (Wikipedia says that it's to confuse predators, if you were wondering.) When Z had this book memorized, we moved on to ...


Move!. This book is also by Steve Jenkins and Robin Page and has the same type of torn-paper illustrations. It gives an animal example for over a dozen types of movement. I think that it's great for a preschooler who is discovering their own body and their ability to move in different ways. After all, who doesn't want to try to "slither" when they hear that word?

This is how we find some of our kid books. We take something that we know Z already loves and then look for an older equivalent or a similar book about a different topic. And it never hurts to just pull your toddler's stroller up to the bookshelf and see what catches his or her eye.

Until next time,
K and Z


Buy Tails, What Do You Do With a Tail Like This? and Move! on Amazon or find them at your local library.