The Magnifying Glass

In the Land of Giants.

 

Some of you may have seen the recent news about the 1,500 year old tree that fell in Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Park in California last month.  For those of you who might not have heard about this remarkable event, I thought that I would pop in and share a video link where you can get some more information on the story.  The tree itself was one of the largest and the oldest on earth and the pictures of it laying across the ground are stunning. 

There has been considerable controversy after the fact about just what to do with the tree, which I think makes for an interesting discussion to have with kids.  This is especially true since children have such a great way of ignoring all of the obstacles that adults create in thinking about these kinds of challenges! 

If you are looking for a great companion book for a discussion about giant redwoods, you can check out my review of Redwoods by Jason Chin in the TMG archives here. 

--- Annie

A Nature Exchange Book List.

All of us here at TMG are very excited to have so many families signing up for the nature exchange!  It should be really fun and interesting, and I thought that I might share a few useful books to help you get started finding and identifying some of the natural treasures in your neck of the woods.  Here are a few favorite titles that you might find helpful!

 

Out of the Ocean by Debra Frasier

 

 

The Tree Book by Gina Ingoglia

 

 

My First Pocket Guide to Rocks and Minerals by National Geographic

 

 

My First Pocket Guide to Wildflowers by National Geographic

 

These are just a few titles among many that could be great resources for the exchange.  Does your family have any favorites you'd like to share? 

 

--- Annie

Oobleck!

Hello TMG friends! I have a post up about oobleck and some good reads to go along with it, and thought that you all might like to have a peek.  Click on over to check it out and get in on the gooey fun!  I promise that it isn't as horrifyingly messy as it looks.

---Annie

On the Shelf: Frogs.

For the last few weeks, life at our house has been dominated by a frog frenzy.  Vermont had a wet spring followed by a hot summer, and the result seems to be an abundance of amphibious life of all sorts.  My seven-year old has become quite the salamander hunter and frog catcher.  This has caused us to revisit various related resources that we have around the house, including Frogs by Gail Gibbons.

Like other Gibbons titles, Frogs is thorough, well-illustrated and full of the kind of very specific details that kids seem to be unable to get enough of.  From life cycle to living conditions, Frogs covers the basic facts well, and does so with Gibbons' trademark voice; one that is both authoritative but also able to meet kids at their level.  I have always loved the way that Gibbons writes for children in a way that assumes their intelligence and curiousity, and her writing in Frogs is no exception.

 

A frog found in the front yard at our house, you can read more about it here

 

An itty bitty frog found by Emily and her boys near their home in North Wales

 

Another of Emily's tiny frogs

 

From fellow TMG contributor Dawn

 

Another photo from Dawn, this time of tadpoles

 

We'd love to share a few of your frog photos here on TMG if you've got them.  If frogs are enjoying their popularity with you and yours, and you've got photographic evidence, send it my way at birdmail@gmail.com.  Happy frog hunting!

On the Shelf: Dinothesaurus.

We are having a spell of pretty hot (and more importantly, humid) weather here in Vermont, and spending a little bit of time indoors with a book in the afternoon is turning out to be a pretty pleasant choice as far as activities go.  In preparation for the coming days of hot, we decided to make a library stop this morning. Among the books we picked up is Dinothesaurus: Prehistoric Poems and Paintings by Douglas Florian, and I am so glad that we did.  

For reasons that I cannot quite explain, I totally associate dinosaurs with summer.  Maybe because we often make museum trips during summer vacation?  It's hard to say, but somehow, a dinosaur book seemed to be a perfect seasonal choice today.  Plus, Dinothesaurus is a unique book about dinosaurs which makes it feel like kind of a special find.  A collection of poetry, paintings and dinosaur facts, Dinothesaurus has a little something for everyone.  Some of the poems are funny, others are factual, but all of them are sure to sound catchy to miniature dinosaur enthusiasts.  I particularly like the somewhat abstract artwork; it makes each page interesting to browse as well as to read.  

Upon further investigation, I realize that Douglas Florian has written and illustrated a number of thematic poetry books for children. We'll definitely be looking for them at the library on our next trip.  

What about you?  What sorts of books is your family reading on days when you need to spend a little quiet time indoors? 

A Favorite Book (and a Little Science Too).

Hello TMG friends!  It has been a busy spring at our house, and I haven't been able to pop in here quite as much as I would have liked.  But summer vacation is only days away, and I plan to be back with you to share book reviews and maybe a few projects too.  To get into the spirit of things, I wanted to direct you to a guest post that I have up on The Crafty Crow right now; a review of a favorite book of ours (and of fellow TMG contributor Lucia's too, if I'm not mistaken) as well as an easy but interesting little science project.  Pop on over there to check out the review and to get instructions for making a simple compass.

--- Annie

What's On Your List?

I am on the hunt for some good reading/listening/watching recommendations! The hunt started with preparations for an upcoming trip, but it is also spurred on by my realization that summer is right around the corner. And although it has been many years since I was a student, I still love having a summer reading list. So here is my list of things I hope to read/watch/listen to in the next few months followed by a list of a few my favorites that you might want to add to your list. It's a random compilation of things related to the natural world, gardening,educating,pondering, and just enjoying. 

 
My Summer List (so far...please, help me add to it!): 

The Curious World of Bugs

Prodigal Summer

The Wilder Life: My Adventures in the Lost World of Little House on the Prairie

Founding Gardeners

Race to Nowhere

The Secret of Kells

Running the Sahara

A Few Of My favorites:

Extreme Nature

The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate

Animal, Vegetable, Miracle

Remarkable Creatures

Gift from the Sea

Winged Migration

Rivers and Tides

Fresh Air Interviews: Wicked Bugs, Under the Sea, Dung Beetles

So, what's on your list for this summer? And what should I add to mine?

---Lucia

On the Shelf: Natural History (Smithsonian).

Every so often we come across a book that is so wonderfully unique and well done that I can't quite get it out of my head until I have a copy of our very own that I can hold in my hands and place on our living room shelves.  This was exactly the case when I first encountered Natural History (Smithsonian).  It is, in short, one of the most visually rich, interesting and exciting books that I've seen in a very long time.

Natural History is a collection of collections.  Each page is filled with clear, colorful photographs of different life forms, accompanied with information such as their names and average size.  Animals, insects, bacteria and the like are grouped with their Linnean neighbors and the breadth of life included in the book is truly stunning.  Think of it as a curated collection of specimens like you would see in the galleries of a natural history museum, only represented in photographs rather than three dimensions.  

 The diversity of beautiful, amazing, extraordinary creatures laid out on the pages of Natural History makes it an ideal pick for Earth Week  This book is more than just eye-candy and hours of leisurely browsing; it is a reminder of what Earth Day is all about.  As citizens of the world, we share our air, our water, our land and our sky with these uncountable other life forms, and knowing something of their multitude, beauty and strangeness is important if we want to be good neighbors.  

Obviously, I can't recommend this book highly enough.  It is a hefty volume, and not inexpensive, but I'm willing to say that it was worth every penny that we spent.  Natural History is an incredibly simple book in its conception, and yet, what it sets out to do, it does very well.  The photographs that grace its pages are a portal to the days of childhood wonder when the entire world appears new, beautiful and endless.  And indeed, Natural History reminds us that each of these things is just as true as it always was.  

 

--- Annie

Pale Male: Revisited.

 

    I had originally planned to share a new book with you this week, but I got a little sidetracked by a delightful discovery.

     I don't know how many of you remember my review of Pale Male: Citizen Hawk of New York City from last spring, but suffice it to say, it is a big favorite around our house.  So, of course, we were more than excited to discover that the Urban Hawks blog has been closely following the movements and activities of the Pale Male as he goes about his springtime business in New York.  

    The blog is also following a number of other hawks in the area, and there are some really great pictures of all of them.  It's especially fun to see real pictures of the bird that has become such a mythical character in our house; Mariam has been very interested in the fate of Pale Male since first hearing his story and was pretty much beside herself at the idea that she could see things like recent pictures and video.  So, a few links:

- The New York Times has a live-stream camera set up where you can view the nesting (and now egg-sitting) activities of a pair of hawks who have taken up residence atop the library at NYU.

- The Urban Hawks blog is here.  A word of caution for those of you with younger children: many of the activities photographed in recent days have been very, um, spring-like.  Depending on what your little people know about how animals make other animals, you might want to specifically pick the eating and flying posts to share. 

- Speaking of eating, here is a post showing Pale Male having a meal.  There is a video as well as some good close-up shots that show what the bird really looks like. 

 

--- Annie

 

On the Shelf: Sylvester and the Magic Pebble.

Since we are talking geology this week here at TMG, I thought that I would share a book with you that I think is brilliant and imaginative and so very, very well done: Sylvester and the Magic Pebble by the incomparable William Steig.  Not only is Sylvester and the Magic Pebble a wonderful read, it is also a book about a rock that is so much more than just a rock, and I think that makes it a perfect book for thinking about kids and geology!  Okay, maybe it's a bit of stretch, but bear with me because this is a great book.  

Sylvester and the Magic Pebble is the story of a young donkey, Sylvester, who due to an unfortunate mishap involving a hungry lion and a pebble with magical properties, finds himself turned into a large, donkey-colored rock.  The majority of the book details the search for Sylvester by his understandably worried parents, Sylvester's attempts at resigning himself to life as a rock, and yes, his eventual return to life as a donkey.  It is a little funny, a bit poignant and full of the unexpected.  

The illustrations and the writing in Sylvester and the Magic Pebble are both examples of Steig at his best, and anyone who is a fan of his other work is sure to love this book.  Like much of Steig's other writing, Sylvester and the Magic Pebble dives deeps into the realm of the impossible, but not without bringing along themes that are just as well placed in a book with more realistic characters and situations. Sylvester and the Magic Pebble is a book about patience, about faith and about hope.  

And, of course, a little bit about geology.