A Field Guide to Nearby Nature: Fields and Woods of the Midwest and East Coast

Whether or not you live near the field and wood habitats described in this charming 160-page volume, your child is sure to be enchanted by the creatures it highlights--from mammals and birds to reptiles to amphibians, slugs and spiders. Each page describes one creature or plant in 250 to 400 words of large, inviting sans-serif type, accompanied by wonderful black and white pen and ink drawings.Our son spends hours reading this book, which is growing bat-eared from his use. Speaking of which, the book opens with a warm treatment of the only flying mammals--whose front legs are modified to wings that differ greatly from those of birds. "Most bats eat insects, which they hunt by sonar detection," the author explains. "The bat makes high-pitched sounds above the range of human hearing. The sounds echo and return to the bat's sensitive ears, revealing the size, shape and location of nearby objects, including moving prey."Kochanoff devotes two pages to beavers--one explaining why these delightful animals are commonly described as "busy" and another detailing the beaver's dam, complete with a cross-section of a home with entrance, air-opening, grooming and eating area, underwater food supply and exit. Kids will delight in the large drawing of the beaver's webbed foot. Eleven more pages detail the lives and habits of chipmunks, eastern cottontails, coyotes, white-tailed deer, red fox, mice and voles, moles, porcupines, raccoon, shrews, striped skunks and grey squirrels.The three pages illustrating the tracks of various animals provide lots more fun. Children also love two pages on other kinds of signs that animals leave behind them--by nibbling on trees, acorns and plants, dropping seeds and conifers parts, or digging teeth marks and chiseling holes. There's something cozy as well about the ways in which diverse species--from bears and woodchucks to turtles, fish and bees--are shown curled or otherwise ensconced in their winter habitats.The section on birds is also fabulous. It provides information on 10 species of birds--from the black-capped chickadee and common crow to the herring gull, hummingbird and killdeer. But kids also love the pages on owl pellets--which shows both the birds' droppings and illustrations of the kinds of bones that can be found by carefully picking them apart. An equally fascinating two-page spread shows ground, hanging, chimney, mud, tree and cupped nests. And what would a nature book be without frogs, earthworms and bugs? In this book, children will get their fill, with 40 pages of fun. I'm not sure which is better, the drawings of the frogs and insects or the handsome illustrations of the wasps nests, empty bumblebee cocoons, honeycombs, butterfly chrysalis and the webs and nets woven by caddis flies and spiders to gather their food. For plant-lovers there are another 30 pages on 39 different varieties of --as they say in the word game--vegetable matter. That includes 10 types of berries on a three-page spread under that sub-