Sherry Been and Cathy Morrison’s book gives kids a taste of natural history by telling them about a tiger’s life in the second person.  “If you were a tiger,” the book reads, “we would call you Great Swimmer.  You have strong muscles and you love the water….”

I think this approach is an effective way to get kids to consider what animals think, feel, and experience without resorting to anthropomorphism.  Still, I wish the author used the second person consistently throughout the book; occasionally she resorts to explaining about tigers without addressing the reader as a tiger.  Likewise, some illustrations are beautiful and polished, while others look like preliminary sketches.

Ages 4-8.

I want to wallpaper my apartment with the illustrations from Carin Berger’s The Little Yellow Leaf!  OK, maybe I’ll just frame a few images.

All joking aside, this is one of the most beautiful children’s books I’ve ever seen.  From the sparse, poetic text to the elegant illustrations, this is a book adults and kids alike will want to read over and over.

Plus, this book is a good find for vegetarian and vegan kids, because it celebrates nature, the changing of the seasons, and living fearlessly.  The little yellow leaf is scared to fall off the tree, even after he thinks all of the other leaves have fallen — but when he discovers a friend, they leap into the wind together and dance into the distance.

So what are you doing still reading this review?  By all means, run out to your library for this book, then snuggle up with your little one for a good winter’s read.

Ages 4-8.

It’s hard not to be amazed by this book by Sarah C. Campbell and Richard P. Campbell.  First there’s the surprise of a carnivorous snail.  To see one up close, complete with lip extensions that look like a mustache, and to read its story* is a genuine treat, at least from an adult’s perspective.

Unfortunately, kiddo doesn’t share my view.  Reading about a snail who eats meat, and hearing about how it devoured another snail, made her incredibly sad.  When I asked her why, she said that she doesn’t like it when anyone eats meat and that she felt bad for the smaller snail.

I used this book as an opportunity to talk about herbivores and carnivores, using our family cat Cassie as an example of how some animals need to eat meat to survive.  You could even use it as a launching point to discuss how your vegetarian child relates to friends and family who eat meat.

As much as I like Wolfsnail, I’m planning to return our borrowed copy and hold off a while before I consider buying it for kiddo.  For now, we’ll stick to books that make her happy.

Ages 4-10.

* In case you’re wondering, a wolfsnail actually is an “it.”  Like most land snails, Ms. Campbell explains, wolfsnails are hermaphrodites.

This week I go solo and show you some personal items I’ve recently nabbed. I cover what I look for in a thrift store, and what you should be keeping and eye out for when you’re out thrifting. Click the image above for the video.

I also posted a few shots from some other goods I picked up recently. Mostly books – as usual. All of the books were under a buck. The camera bag (shown in the video) was $2.99.

BE A TRUE FAN: Add us on FaceBook Fan Page. We appreciate it!

* HEAD ON OVER: Arc’s Value Village Thrift Stores & Donation Centers Opens in Saint Paul. Arc’s Value Village Thrift Stores & Donation Centers will become a part of the rich retail history of White Bear Avenue with the opening of Arc’s fourth and largest Twin Cities store in the Hillcrest Shopping Center, 1650 White Bear Ave. N., St. Paul. Hillcrest Shopping Center is just south of Highway 36 on White Bear Avenue, near Aldrich Arena. The store will celebrate with a Grand Opening on Saturday, Nov. 21, 2009.

Say to a room full of parents, “Raise your hand if you are you a reader,” and you will see a sea of hands. Say to the same parents, “Raise your hand if you are a writer,” and you will see a few timid hands reaching for the sky and a roomful of quizzical expressions.

Most of us learned to write for an audience of one, the teacher. Our writing was utilitarian to the purpose of earning a grade; most of us submitted work with no idea what the teacher wanted and hoped we would get an A.

Today, as a result of the explosive work by gifted teachers such as Lucy Calkins and Donald Graves, students are invited to be writers as they work within a writers’ workshop. Students view books as text created by writers; they read not only for enjoyment but also to see how writers write. They seek to write for an audience of peers and parents as well as the teacher, and they learn from reading what it means to write well. Excellent writing serves as models to students who copy elements of that excellent writing. Students are invited into a “celebration of words.”

Adults can gain admittance to the ownership of their own writing and can support student writing by seeking wonderful books to share with children. Books such as Water Dance by Thomas Locker invite readers to see the beauty in their world and use words to describe that beauty. He writes as if he is the water:

At the foot of the mountains,
I leap from a stone cliff.
Spiraling.
Plunging.

I am the waterfall.

Locker shows us how the celebration of nature brings importance to cultivation of our use of words as poetry; he then offers the reader information about the water cycle as the last few pages are written in expository text. He tempts us to go out into nature, see its beauty, and choose words that allow us to share our experience with others while we learn.

Using Locker’s example, adults can invite children to satisfy their curiosity about nature, and then “be nature.” As families enjoy summer activities such as hiking, camping, and travel, they can be reminded of Locker’s words and illustrations as he describes water in all of its drama and exuberance, and use that model as they explore the world:

I am the redwood tree…
I am the ocean….
I am the lake…

Be brave: play with words this summer! Be a writer!

You’ll notice that I have added a link at the bottom of the sidebar to the right for my book recommendations, starting with nature books. These are mostly field guides that I find most useful in learning to identify new plants, animals and geology. I also use these in teaching nature and ecology conservation to Scouts. I have three criteria that use to select my favorites.

1. They must have a easy to use identification process, preferably a dichotomous key. A dichotomous key gives the user a set of two descriptions that they must chose between, thus narrowing down the possible answer. For example, for a tree the key would start with “deciduous” or “evergreen.”  This continues until there are no more choices and the final result identifies the correct species. Some books provide only a visual reference and you have to leaf through all of the picture to find a visual match.  These are much harder to use with any accuracy. George Barron’s Mushrooms of Northeast North America: Midwest to New England is an exception. The excellent photographs and relatively small number of possible specimins make identifying your plant rather easy.

2. They must have a good introduction and “how to use this book” section.  The “how to use this book” section is critical in understanding how the author organized the material.  Without reading this you will be at a loss on how to properly use the key and you’ll end up guessing, often making the wrong guess. The introduction should provide a good overall description of the included material.  The Peterson Field Guide A Field Guide to Ferns and their related families: Northeastern and Central North America is an excellent example as it’s introduction describes ferns and fern related families, their habitat, their reproduction cycle, and so on. I have often said this should be required reading for biology students studying non-flowering plants as the introduction does a better job than most text books.

3. The content must be concise, easy to understand and interesting.  This would seem to be a given but there are a number of books that are poorly written or are written for researchers or scientists and are unsuitable for the hobbyist or Scout. Simon & Schuster’s Guide to Rocks & Minerals is an example of what I consider poor content. I do include it on my list for two reasons. One, it has some great photos. Two, it’s section on crystology is fascinating, although totally unsuitable for youth.  But an adult rock hound would find it valuable.

I will sort through my library and add some more books within the next few weeks.  I’ll also create new sections for different categories, such as Scoutcraft for orienteering, rope and knotes. I’ll also add recommendations for knife sharpening, cooking, backpack and other topics.  The links open up a table that ties into Amazon.com associates program.  So I will receive a credit at Amazon.com for any purchases made through this link. I will use it to purchase additional books to review.

Please add your comments if you have any favorites or are interested if I can recommend a particular book on a topic not yet listed.

Leaf Bird Days & Firefly Nights (www.amazon.com) is a touching nature journey covering one year in the life of author, Beverly Letchworth. Ms. Letchworth who has appeared in hundreds of magazines, chronicles a year through the eyes of nature.

The book begins in January and ends in December, and reads like a personal journal. At the end of each passage Ms. Letchworth gives ideas or thoughtful quotes on how to incorporate more nature into your life.

“April 21:  As I sweep the patio this morning, I notice a robin in distress. A heavy string hangs from his mouth, tailing some 18 inches. He tires to dislodge it, but without success. He flies to the woodpile and when he tries to take wing again, the string catches on a snag and jerks him backwards…. I hurry outside, wanting to help the bird… “

In November, Letchworth takes note of a man who stops his car in the middle of the road to rescue an injured cardinal. As she watches the man, she sees humanity come alive. On another day while gathering up pumpkin seeds the birds were afraid to try, she remembers a story about an orphaned child who won’t eat anything unfamiliar. By comparing the two situations, she sees a way to help the birds be more open to trying something new.

Letchworth has an easy, comforting style and has appeared in Highlights for Children, The Writer, Wildbird and many others. She also has a children’s book, Pax & the Mutt.

Look for the book here:  www.amazon.com   

Fourth in an occasional series of natural history book reviews.  Books reviewed here can be purchased through Amazon.com by following the links from my Southern Arizona Desert Botany homepage.

LICHENS OF NORTH AMERICA, by Irwin M. Brodo, Sylvia Duran Sharnoff, and Stephen Sharnoff.  2001, Yale University Press, 828 pages, hardbound.

This is certainly one of the most beautiful and ambitious natural history books ever published.  Printed on smooth, sturdy paper and lavishly illustrated with hundreds of stunning photos, the “Big Book” is an important addition to any naturalist’s library.   It contains keys, descriptions, and spectacular photos for about a third of U.S. lichen species.  The introductory material stands alone as a significant up-to-date work on lichen natural history, and includes detailed background information on lichen biology, chemistry, ecology, and a fascinating and useful section on geographic distribution.  The text is carefully prepared, well organized, and very readable.  It is designed to reach the broadest possible audience, from professional  scientists to beginning naturalists, and succeeds very well.  This is a wonderful browsing book for the armchair naturalist, a useful and informative guide for lichen enthusiasts of all levels, and an inspiration for nature photographers. 

The book is dedicated to the late Mason E. Hale, the American lichenologist who wrote How to Know the Lichens, which was the first detailed guide to American lichens that was written for the general public.  Dr. Hale bought and autographed a copy for me in 1984, when I worked for a summer as his intern at the Smithsonian Institution’s Botany Department.  It’s a spiralbound paperback, filled with meticulously detailed keys and descriptions, and illustrated with very high quality black and white photos and line drawings.  Despite the huge difference in size, Lichens of North America borrows several design elements from its predecessor, including the square page format, the colors used for the cover art, and the font style  used for the title – a respectful yet whimsical touch.  For comparison, both books are shown in the photo.

Lichen Books

A photo gallery and other information is available at the book’s website:

http://www.lichen.com/

Goodie Bag
Clear Giftwrap $49 GBAG6A
Paper Giftwrap $50 GBAG6B

Wild Animals of Singapore
Wild Animals Calendar
Wild Animals Playing Cards

HOW TO ORDER

The Young Birder’s Guide to Birds of Eastern North America (Peterson Field Guides)
by Bill Thompson III is a great book for anyone, young, or old, who is interested in birds and birding.

Bill Thompson is well-known in the birding world as the editor of Bird Watcher’s Digest. His newest field guide for Eastern North American birds is aimed at a much younger audience than expected- kids.  This portable, slim, field-friendly guide is perfect for young birders.

The first 40 pages in this slim (easily packed into a bag) volume focus on the hobby of birdwatching and how to get involved.  For any child or person new to birding, Thompson is the authority on birdwatching.  The first few chapters do a great job of convincing the reader that birding is cool and fun, something that I don’t think many children consider.  Birding is also fairly inexpensive and can be done almost anywhere, at any time.

The field guide is slim and easily placed into a bag or pocket, yet it is packed to the gills with information.  The guide covers  200 common or intriguing birds from Eastern North America,  Each bird receives a page with a picture, the basics to identify the bird and its voice, a range map and a “wow” factoid about the species. Thompson does not fall into the trap of only featuring exotic, rare birds that kids will have a hard time seeing.  Instead, the sparrows, finches, sea birds, and cardinals are all well-represented.  I used the book while watching my birdfeeder this past weekend and it was perfect.  The bottom of each page also has a check box, where kids can mark the birds they have seen, to begin their life-list of sightings.

One of my favorite things about this book is that Thompson apparently consulted with his eleven-year old daughter’s class in coming up with the design of the book, so the book is child and adult friendly. The Wow factoids are fun and informative, and the pictures of each species are breath-taking. Plus, the cover is wipeable, meaning it will survive those days out in the backyard!

The field guide covers all types of habitats and all of Eastern North America.  This would make a great gift for kids from 8-18.

Finished today:

Moth Catcher, by Michael M. Collins

The kind of book that you should read if and only if the subtitle “An Evolutionist’s Journey Through Canyon and Pass” sounds like your kind of book – this book doesn’t rise above the expectations set by that title, nor does it fail in the end to meet them, either.

For the most part, it’s just the story of the “ordinary” life of a modern scientist — following and illuminating his passion for caterpillars and moths, describing the work of a lifetime in the span of a 150 pages, the bits and pieces of the real contributions Collins has made to science. Not earth-shattering or sky-splitting, but a valuable gleaning of facts contributing to a better understanding of speciation and hybridization.

Pasted from <http://photo.net/photodb/photo?photo_id=5784219>

This is a Eupackardia calleta larva. “The gaudy color and pattern suggest warning coloration , as does the blood chemistry.”

He describes one experiment in the book that bears repeating (in fact, I’ve already repeated it to my son.) Nestling blue jays were raised

…as naïve predators, feeding them palatable viceroy butterflies, a supposed mimic of the poisonous monarch. The birds eagerly accepted the viceroys and learned to recognize them by their color and pattern When they were then offered monarch, the jays at first could not discriminate them from viceroys. Each time they attacked a monarch they quickly spat it out and retched in response to the cardiac glycosides these butterflies sequester from milkweed during the larval stage. (Revealing his wry humor, Brower [one of the scientists] quantified glycoside levels in standard “emetic units.”) Still reeling from the experiement, the wretched brids subsequently refused to feed on viceroy adults, presumably solely on the basis of their visual resemblance to monarchs. More than a century after Henry Walter Bates proposed the idea of micry, the Browers and their students linked together plant biochemistry and predatoation to explain the evolution of warning coloration in the monarch model and of convergent patterns on the wings of the viceroy mimic.

Such is the progress of science — proving or disproving, logic isn’t enough; although one feels a bit of sympathy for those poor jays.

Near the end of the book, the tone suddenly shifts from memoir to science article with a closely reasoned and intellectually stimulating description of the debate over the meaning of species — essentially, where you draw the line. It’s clear from reading this, by the way, that humans at this point in time are all one species, although he doesn’t address this question.

One question I would pose to him, though. He says “The longer two species evolve along separate lineages, the more genetic differences they accumulate and the less successful their hybrids will be.” But my understanding is that after a “short” separation, crosses are more successful leading to hybrid vigor. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hybrid_vigor )

Post-script — one interesting fact.

He usually collects his butterflies and moths in traps, baiting the traps with females raised from captured  caterpillars that he hopes will lure the males he is interested in. There goes my vision of chasing around fields with butterfly nets — although that does happen at one point, it’s not the norm.

This book was mentioned in an earlier post: Tracks of Tracks in the Snow

http://iklan789.wordpress.com

Iklan789

Jasa periklanan di internet

Setiap pelaku dunia usaha selalu ingin usahanya dikenal luas oleh seluruh calon komsumen kalau bisa sampai ke seluruh dunia. Selain itu juga mereka selalu ingin ada peningkatkan omzet penjualan produk dan jasanya dari hari kehari. Untuk mencapai tujuan ini mereka berpromosi diberbagai media cetak dan elektronik, menyewa tempat, pameran dan sebagainya. Tapi yang jadi masalah adalah promosi dengan cara seperti itu membutuhkan biaya yang besar / mahal dan kurang efektif karena jangkauan wilayahnya yang terbatas / bersifat lokal.

Untuk mengatasi masalah ini kami dari iklan789 yang bergerak di jasa periklanan di internet akan memberikan solusi bagi anda yaitu :

1. Segera iklankan perusahaan / usaha, produk dan jasa anda di media internet melalui

iklan789

2. Jangkauan luas hingga keseluruh dunia.
3. Iklan dapat diakses 24 jam.
4. Kategori produk bebas sesuai dengan keinginan anda.
5. Tarif iklan sangat murah hanya Rp. 175.000 untuk satu tahun.
6. Bonus 3 gambar produk anda full colour max ukuran A4.
7. Bonus satu buah website atas nama perusahaan / usaha anda.

UNTUK KETERANGAN LEBIH LANJUT HUBUNGI : ERFIN SYAFRIZAL, SE.
PH / FAX 0251 8422540 , 021 714 21631 Hp 0856 100 4540 (SMS 24 JAM )

OFFICE : JL DAMAI NO 15 RT 01 / RW 01 CILUBANG LEBAK KEL SETU GEDE KEC BOGOR BARAT KOTA BOGOR JAWA BARAT PH / FAX 0251 8422540 E MAIL. erfin234@yahoo.com

Web : http://iklan789.wordpress.com