A Walk Through Nature by Libby Walden - ADVISABLE

A Walk Through Nature by Libby Walden. NON-FICTION PICTURE BOOK. 360 Degrees (Tiger Tales), 2019. $20.

BUYING ADVISORY: EL (K-3), EL – ADVISABLE

AUDIENCE APPEAL: HIGH

The twelve poems in this book describe ways our natural world transforms over a day, month, or year. Habitats include a meadow, pond, mountain stream, tree, beach and underground; transformations include plants growing, day turning to night, leaves changing color, birds migrating, eggs hatching, tadpoles growing legs, and tides ebbing. Each poem starts with two four-line stanzas on the left side, with a full-page illustration on the right. The illustrated nature scene is printed on a page that has been folded in and die-cut. When you fold out the page, you find a related scene underneath that nature has transformed, as described in the poem. On the back side of the fold is the final stanza of the poem, plus additional nonfiction information about the featured transformation.

I must say that every time I look through this book, it fills me with warmth and wonder. How amazing is our natural world, and what joy our young readers will have studying these transformations both through the rhyming words, and with the peek-through illustrations. The final endpapers include an array of objects that readers can go back and try to find in the book. I rate the buying advisory as advisable because it connects strongly with elementary science curriculum, and the audience appeal as high because of the die-cuts.

P.K. Foster, MLS, school librarian