Nature Anatomy Book Review to Celebrate the Earth

Disclosure: I was sent this book to review free of charge from Storey Publishing. All opinions in this post are my own. I did not receive any other compensation for this review. I am including links to each item for your convenience but do not receive anything if you purchase them.

Here is a perfect book for Earth Day although I'm a little late. This amazing book was one of the prizes in our Earth Day Giveaway. When I saw it I thought it looked like a book Hazel would love. I was right. Not only does Hazel love it, Steve and I love it and my father was looking very interested in it (and he really doesn't do books). The book is Nature Anatomy by Julia Rothman with help from John Niekrasz.

This book covers everything from the planets and space to what the earth is made of to the plants, animals and weather. It truly is a book about all of earth and creation. The illustrations are clear and beautiful. The words really teach about the subject. It amazes me how much information is in this book and that it is information that all of us find so interesting and understand. The book is broken into seven chapters: Common Ground, What's Up?, Come Close, Take a Hike, Creature Feature, A Little Bird Told Me and Head above Water. Common Ground covers the layers of the Earth, rocks, minerals, landscapes and ends with a painting project called Loose Landscape Painting, which we tried and I will share all of our paintings throughout the post. 

My Favorite Landscape Painting Painted by Me

The What's Up? chapter covers space and weather or everything from the sky. It includes the layers of the atmosphere, the phases of the moon and the constellations. The Come Close chapter begins with flowers: the flower's anatomy and pictures of many various wildflowers. Then it goes into bees and butterflies and which flowers and plants attract the butterflies. Then there are some pages of beautiful butterflies and beautiful moths. Next are the grasses and grazing plants and then bugs, spiders and ants. It also includes a recipe for gorgonzola-stuffed daylilies. Chapter 4 is called Take a Hike. It is about trees. There are drawings of leaves, bark and seeds of trees to help the reader identify types of trees. Then it goes into ferns, mushrooms and rotting logs. It also includes a craft called Printing Patterns and a recipe for bolete with sorrel and thyme. We did not try the Printing Patterns, since our trees are just getting their buds on them and do not have leaves yet. We did however do some nature painting with dandelions, violets and clovers.

Hazel using a dandelion to make purple flowers in her painting

 

Hazel's Painting with the Nature Painting

The next chapter is Creature Feature. It talks about the animals. Land animals and water animals. This book focuses on the animals that are in North America. The next chapter is A Little Bird Told Me and it is about the birds. It has pictures of the birds, nests and eggs. If you find an egg or shell in your yard, this book will help you identify it. The final chapter is Head Above Water. It is about the fish and underwater plants and starts with the various types of bodies of water. It ends with a recipe for a seaweed facial mask. 

Hazel's Painting of her Clubhouse

We are still enjoying this book and I expect we will for a very long time. I may even consider getting one for my father.

My Attempt to get the whole backyard

Hazel's Made Up Landscape

I have to recommend this book. It is such a unique book and full of interesting facts and beautiful pictures!!

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