Reviews (2)

Educator's Dream
My Kindergarten son brought this book home from his school library and I groaned at the prospect of reading yet another 'chapter book' aloud to him. Instead, I was drawn into the beautiful photographs, the info and the great craft ideas. I am purchasing my own copy to keep in my classroom and am looking forward to sharing this beautiful book with my students.

Outstanding photographs - wonderful for all ages!
Kids and adults will LOVE this book. It is selling like hotcakes in schools and bookstores across Connecticut. The hands-on crafts are wonderful! The colorful,vivid photographs are extraordinary as they summarize the life cycle of the monarch butterfly. Migration, milkweed preservation, butterfly gardening, varieties of nationwide milkweed and the protection of the monarch habitat are glorified in this exciting book! Best of all, kids can connect on the internet to learn more about monarchs. Check out these web sites! ... Read more

Book Description

Book Description

When is a weed not a weed?

How can a jackrabbit survive in the desert?

Why is the climate cooler higher in the mountains?

Now you can learn the answers to these and other questions about ecology. With the ideas and activities in Ecology for Every Kid, you'll have fun exploring everything from your role in spreading plant seeds, to greenhouse gases' effect on the earth's temperature.

Use a raisin cookie, a pencil, and a toothpick to learn how a woodpecker gets its food. With uncooked rice and a sock, see how a mountain goat maintains its footing on rocky slopes. In other fascinating projects, you'll find out how a cactus stores water, how fox-hunting affects tree growth, and much more.

You'll find most of the materials you need around the house or classroom. The book also contains many helpful diagrams and illustrations plus a glossary of bold-faced terms for you to refer to whenever necessary. Every activity has been pretested and can be performed safely and inexpensively in the classroom or at home.

Also available in this series from Janice VanCleave:

ASTRONOMY FOR EVERY KID

BIOLOGY FOR EVERY KID

CHEMISTRY FOR EVERY KID

DINOSAURS FOR EVERY KID

EARTH SCIENCE FOR EVERY KID

GEOGRAPHY FOR EVERY KID

GEOMETRY FOR EVERY KID

THE HUMAN BODY FOR EVERY KID

MATH FOR EVERY KID

PHYSICS FOR EVERY KID ... Read more

Book Description

In the Everglades, inches deep and miles wide, mystery abounds. What may look like a smooth, silent carpet of flowing grass is actually a world teeming with life. Amid tree islands and mangrove roots are animals on the prowl. A tuft-eared bobcat gives an eerie yoooooowl, a raccoon carefully washes his food, an osprey guts a fish, and an alligator waits with shroudlike eyes for a redbelly turtle to swim too close. From creatures that fly to those that crawl, here is the cycle of life in the Everglades, presented in lilting, poetic words and lush, dramatic images. A perfect armchair tour through a surprisingly vast array of wildlife in a swampy strip unlike any other place on earth. ... Read more

Book Description

Look Closer These stunning photographic information books picture nature in extraordinary close-up and with an intimacy unrivaled by other wildlife books. Each title features magnificently detailed, larger-than-life photographs on each spread. Will enthrall any child who has ever wondered how a butterfly wing looks to another butterfly or how a spider sees its own web. Text and annotations give a real sense of where each plant or creature lives, how it eats, breeds, survives, and adapts to its particular habitat. Color artworks show the scale of the animal or plant; a glossary defines the meanings of unfamiliar words. ... Read more

Book Description

Predators and Prey takes a look at the animals that feed on the plant- and insect-eating animals of the rainforest. Exciting illustrations help depict the hunting practices and ways of life of rainforest predatorsfrom hungry piranhas that live in the water to sharp-eyed cats that hunt by night on the forest floor, and eagles that swoop down from the canopy's treetops. ... Read more

Book Description

The great Sonoran Desert in the American Southwest teems with all manner of creatures and plant life. Seemingly asleep during the hot daylight hours (although many animals are astir), the desert awakes with activity after nightfall. This entertaining and educational coloring book abounds with realistically rendered illustrations of wildlife found in this area--from tiny lizards, an antelope jack rabbit and darting road runner, to a desert tortoise chewing on a beavertail cactus and a turkey vulture soaring on updrafts above the desert. Nature lovers will be thrilled with this collection, as will colorists of all ages. Dover Original. 29 plates of black-and-white illustrations and 5 in full color on covers. Introduction. Captions.
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Amazon.com

Imagine if you were given a grant by the National Science Foundation tospend four months in Antarctica to sketch, take pictures, and write home tofriends and family. Antarctic Journal is the record of Jennifer OwingsDewey's trek to the bottom of the world: "a planet as remote as the moon in itsown way," she writes. Antarctica, home to 100 million penguins, has ice up tothree miles thick, covering 98 percent of the land. The author writes heraccount of this icy-cold adventure at Palmer Station in an accessible journal,sprinkled with letters home and colored-pencil sketches and photographs ofvarious landscapes and Arctic creatures. Discussions of penguin behavior areinterrupted by the history of Gondwanaland and continental drift, while snippetsabout trying to cook krill (the tiny phytoplankton that blue whales eat) ingarlic and butter add a comic and personal touch to her adventure. Descriptionsof the "green flash" that happens just before sunset, red tide, and a mirageeffect called the "fata morgana" (named after the fairy Morgan who built castlesin the air) are sure to intrigue and inspire young explorers. This is acharming, personable introduction to a forbidding, fascinating continent. (Ages8 to 12) --Karin Snelson ... Read more

Reviews (1)

clever, well written, interesting
Jennifer Owings Dewey spent four months in Antarctic sketching and photographing wildlife, and writing this wonderful book about the “last great wilderness on earth.” The trip was made possible by a grant from the National Science Foundation. The book jacket claims that it is appropriate for age 7 and up… well perhaps for a precocious child. I think that ( ) has it right. Age 9 to 12 seems more appropriate.

Written as a cross between a diary and letters home, and interspersed with drawings, and photographs, this is a small, almost intimate book. I read the “Antarctic Journal” out loud to my 11 year-old daughter. We talked about each journal entry or letter home, and looked at all the pictures together. We were introduced to the Adelie penguins, nesting gentoos, blue whales, Weddell seals, and krill. We were given a little history lesson starting 200 million years ago with Gondwanaland, and many lessons in nature. Antarctic has only one year-round land-resident, a mite. It’s the size of a pinhead. Also, male and female penguins share parenting, and they are absolutely devoted parents. A “parent penguin suffering heat stroke will not abandon its nest. It will fall dead in a heap first.” Antarctica has its own etiquette. Human visitors to Antarctica are not allowed to touch any wildlife. However, penguins did check out the author, her clothes, and typewriter.

So many nature books are dry. This one is clever, well written, and interesting. It is a wonderful addition to our home library. I highly recommend it. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

Educational for all ages
A wonderful educational book for all ages. Although the summary indicates this book is for children 9-12, I used this book for a presentation on the rain forest to children from 5-6 years old. The teacher of the classenjoyed the book so much, she is requesting a copy for her classroom. Ifanyone is considering a trip to a tropical environment with children, thiswould be a fabulous book to take along. ... Read more

Book Description

Survive an icy night under a December moon with a song sparrow stalked by a midnight predator in Ohio's suburban meadowland.

Navigate through underground passageways with a mole in the chilly darkness of December and January beneath the Great Plains of Kansas.

Experience January moonlit courtship with a hooting horned owl in the forests of the Catskill Mountains.

Prepare for hibernation with a female bear as February's ice crystals replace the dew in the Smoky Mountains of Tennessee.

In this series, acclaimed naturalist and Newbery Medal -- winning author Jean Craighead George takes readers on a wondrous journey through each season of the year as she captures the lives of thirteen different North American animals in their natural habitats.

Reviews (1)

Spectacular Nature Writing
Newbery Medal-winning naturalist and acclaimed author Jean Craighead George wrote a series of stories in the late 1960's entitled The Thirteen Moons.Each of the thirteen books focused on a different wild animal struggling to survive in a different month of the year and a different part of the United States.The books were: THE MOON OF THE ALLIGATORS, BEARS, CHICKAREES, DEER, FOX PUPS, MOLES, MONARCH BUTTERFLIES, MOUNTAIN LIONS, OWLS, SALAMANDERS, WILD PIGS, WINTER BIRD, and GRAY WOLVES (see my review of these books under THE MOON OF THE OWLS).They had simple black-and-white drawings for illustrations and went out of print.Then in the early nineties the books were republished in handsome hardcover versions, with spectacular full-color paintings to complement Ms. George's original writing.Sadly, these books again went out of print.But now the thirteen books have been republished!They have been condensed into four paperbacks that revolve around the different seasons; AUTUMN MOON and WINTER MOON have already come out, SPRING and SUMMER MOON will be out in spring of 2002.At last this enchanting nature writing has been made easily available.The books are sure to be enjoyed by any person, young or old, who appreciates the natural world, its seasons, and its creatures.WINTER MOON features four stories--THE MOON OF THE WINTER BIRD (December), MOLES (December-January), OWLS (January), and BEARS (February).They are captivating and enjoyable, and very descriptive.Each one resonates with the kind of chilly coziness, combined with a sense of gloom and antagonism, that comes in winter time.You will shiver with the little song sparrow under the December moon; find your way through the underground darkness of a mole's lair; fly with the great horned owl through the Catskill Mountains; and wait for winter to be over with the hibernating black bear.Ms. George's words are lively and interesting and will draw you right into the stories.Also, some of the paintings from the early 90's versions of the books have been reproduced; however, they are not as fine quality to portray the scenes as wonderfully as they did in the out-of-print hardcover versions.Still, it is nice that they were included in the new paperback books.The colors are rich and accurate; I wish that more had been included.Jean Craighead George has written almost 100 books for young naturalists, among them JULIE OF THE WOLVES, MY SIDE OF THE MOUNTAIN, the ONE DAY. . .series, and the ECO-MYSTERIES, so check these out as well.Also, musician Chris Kubie has released a spellbinding CD of the Thirteen Moons entitled MUSIC OF THE THIRTEEN MOONS.Read along with the music and you're sure to find a very enjoyable reading experience. ... Read more

Book Description

When the snow is gone, flowers bloom and kites fly high. Join Blue and her friends as they say, "Good-bye, winter," and "Hello, spring!" ... Read more

Book Description

Amazing information and two spectacular fold-out illustrations help children identify the colorful wildlife and plants in Nature Unfolds the Tropical Rainforest. This lavishly illustrated new book takes readers on a journey from the swamplands of the Amazon delta up through the layers of the tropical rainforest-two separate but linking habitats. ... Read more

Book Description

Get acquainted with a variety of polar inhabitants as you color lifelike drawings of terns and humpback whales, baby harp seals, a sea spider, king and emperor penguins, and other creatures—all shown in their native habitats. Fact-filled captions accompany 44 excellent illustrations in this entertaining and educational coloring book.
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