A Field Guide to the Familiar
A Field Guide to the Familiar Learning to Observe the Natural World BY GALE LAWRENCE ILLUSTRATED BY ADELAIDE TYROL "Most field guides are designed to help you figure out what you don't know,"...
...It begins with what you do know and encourages you to learn more...
...A Field Guide to the Familiar Learning to Observe the Natural World BY GALE LAWRENCE ILLUSTRATED BY ADELAIDE TYROL "Most field guides are designed to help you figure out what you don't know," writes naturalist and teacher Gale Lawrence about her beginner's model for observing nature, A Field Guide to the Familiar...
...Each subject, celebrated for its uniqueness, is used to teach a greater biological concept, such as adaptability, behavior, metamorphosis, or survival...
...June beetles demonstrate metamorphosis...
...What are their survival skills...
...Organized by season, the book begins with "First Frost and Indian Summer" and goes on to include sub-seasonal interims such as "Late Fall to Christmas" and "Beginning to Be Spring...
...Rather, this guide is an in-depth, reflective look at some of the commonplace life forms around us: How do these species relate to the world around them...
...crows teach adaptability...
...274 pages...
...Red-winged blackbirds illustrate flock behavior...
...DD) Hanover, NH: University Press of New England, 1998...
...What larger ecological concepts do they illustrate...
...This field guide is different...
...This book is clearly not meant to be exhaustive—we must go elsewhere for lists of broad-leaved plants with opposite simple leaves or identification keys to those confusing spring warblers...
...Using descriptive rather than scientific terms, Lawrence creates memorable images to assist the neophyte: "The reed's stalk looks like a collapsible car antenna," or "tadpoles...resembling punctuation marks...
...More than anything, this book shows us how much we miss in our everyday glances at the world around us, opening our eyes to the rich rewards of close, thoughtful observation...
...The book's easy, readable style makes it a manageable choice for young people and other novice naturalists who are looking for a place to begin their study of this vast natural world...
Vol. 2 • June 1998 • No. 3
