3 Nature Books for Families (reviews)

THE SENSE OF WONDER - Rachel Carson (93 pages)

c. 1956  The text was originally published as an essay in Woman’s Home Companion entitled “Help Your Child to Wonder.” It was posthumously made into a book in 1965, illustrated with black & white and color nature photography by Charles Pratt and others. Many photos featured children enjoying the wonders of the natural world around them.  In this book, Miss Carson often refers to the explorations of woods and beach that she made with her little great-nephew Roger, who she adopted after the death of his mother in 1957.

         With prose as eloquent as poetry, Rachel Carson urges parents to take the time just to be with their young children in the great outdoors. It’s not important to drill into their little brains the names and details of the flora and fauna they see, but rather to just be with them in the wonder of the moment.

BUTTERNUT HOLLOW POND - Brian J. Heinz (31 pages)

c. 2000  What a great book with which to follow Rachel Carson’s The Sense of Wonder!  The lovely, detailed watercolor illustrations by Bob Marstall bring to life the story of a day in the life of the denizens of a pond ecosystem somewhere, anywhere, in the eastern half of the United States.

           The various food chains and ecological niches of the creatures that call Butternut Hollow Pond “home” are sensitively explained to children in a series of vignettes describing five different times of day from the break of dawn to the shadows of the night. I recommend this thoughtful book to parents who wish to introduce their children to the natural world.

BLUE POTATOES, ORANGE TOMATOES - (39 pages)

c. 1994  This is also a wonderful nature book for children, one that is meant to encourage them to explore the world of growing plants in the garden.  Riotously colorful, it gives helpful advice for the young first-time gardener and introduces him or her to varieties of common vegetables and fruit that also come in unusual colors. There are even easy-to-make recipes, so children can experience (with the assistance of their grown-ups) cooking and eating the fruits of their labors.