Ana, the determined protagonist (fancy word for main character) in my debut picture book, The Wall and the Wild, with Katie Rewse, not only loves gardens but also loves books. Shocker, right? She told me that it might be a good idea to start sharing some of her favorite books about wild things with all of you, and I agreed. So, this is your first post highlighting a wild sort of book (board book, picture book, chapter book, early reader ... fiction or nonfiction). The type of book might vary!
First up: This book is a little hard to find outside of libraries, but it's worth the read, and Ana thinks it's a good place to start if you want to understand the Wild and why it matters. (Her furry, scaly, feathery, shelled, and other friends think so, too.) Friends in the Wild, by Anne Flounders, is part of a series of books entitled Our Green Earth. Each book explores something fabulous about the natural world around us, the world we call home, the world that brought us, well, us. Its 32 pages of text and photographs do a fantastic job introducing some core concepts like habitat, ecosystem and biodiversity ... all things that Ana learns are kind of important. It's slated for independent readers ages 8 to 10, it but makes a good read aloud, too, and I'm fairly sure some younger readers could also handle the text. Lexile is about 750L for those who look for it.
Here's a sneak peak:
If you feel like getting wild today, you can look this title up at your library ... or any of the titles in the series. There's a set of them!
Also, you can find more books that will take you on wonderous journeys through forests (just one kind of wild space) on this list:
Ana likes that list. I hope you do, too!
Psst! Since I mentioned wild things, Ana insists I post one of her favorite books about wild things, even though she's pretty sure you might have read it before. We read the best book again and again, right?