The Walker's Companion

If you value field guides, you will love this Time-Life edition of "The Walker's Companion" from The Nature Company. Several highly respected nature writers, including David Rains Wallace and Ann Zwinger, make contributions to this well-illustrated and highly informative text. Those names should give you a clue to the excellent combination of literary and scientific writing that makes this text a must-have reference for anyone who is interested in the environment.This is a field guide that powerfully combines content with context in a way that makes the information about nature and the environment not only highly accessible, but intrinsically linked to the key social topics that are central issues in both science and social studies. Topics include the history of nature writing and in America, hiking tips, the study of nature throughout the ages, field identification and sketching outdoors. Ecological concepts such as food chains and pollination are concisely described and illustrated in a section titled, "Understanding Nature". Information about every ecosystem from forests, mountains and deserts to farmland and vacant lots is included in the "Guide to Habitats" section. This kind of comprehensive perspective about environment helps the reader to think about and see ecology in very relevant ways. The format of double-facing pages per topic gives concise environmental information, making it easy to read, index and apply to the reader's world. The guide is an essential home or travel reference as well as a valuable classroom text that would be interesting and accessible for audiences from 10 to 100. The text is so versatile that I have a copy for myself and have ordered a class set for my middle school students for a wide range of class use including nature drawing, research, gardening and environmental education.