Nature's Day: Out and About by Kay Maguire and Danielle Kroll
| Nature's Day: Out and About by Kay Maguire and Danielle Kroll | |
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| Category: Children's Non-Fiction | |
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Reviewer: Sue Magee
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| Summary: A good activity book to encourage the five-plus child to get out and interact with nature. There are six activities for each season which makes the book good value over the course of a year. | |
| Buy? Yes | Borrow? No |
| Pages: 56 | Date: April 2016 |
| Publisher: Wide Eyed Editions | |
| External links: Author's website | |
| ISBN: 978-1847808004 | |
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I love books which encourage children to interact with nature - as opposed to a computer screen. I like to see them getting outdoors, preferably getting a bit dirty, being independent and getting excited about nature. A good teacher will inspire children, but Nature's Day: Out and About provides support and encouragement in equal measures and might just be what a child needs.
It's written for the five-plus market. For each season there are six activities: a picture to colour and bring to life, details of animals and plants to spot and tick off when you've seen them, things to make (such as a bee hotel or leaf rubbings) and a fun project to make a decorated box in which to keep all the precious things which are collected. All the activities are age-appropriate and explanations - where needed - are clear. I particularly liked the bee hotel, made from a tin can and some drinking straws and I think a few of them are going to be appearing at the bottom of my garden. (Yes - I know - I'm rather more than five years old, but I've never really grown up.) Necessary warnings (such as sharp edges on tin cans) are flagged up, but not very prominently.
Just occasionally I would have liked the items we were spotting to be a little more wild. Crocuses, daffodils and tulips in spring are more likely to be in the garden or a park - but then that's a better place to be than indoors. On the other hand, the search for tadpoles, frogspawn, toads and newts was all that I could have asked for.
Pictures to colour are carefully balanced - some ability to control crayons is obviously required to get the best effect, but the pictures are not so simple that even an adult would feel that they were too patronising. Similarly, the projects, such as the bee hotel and building a log pile are eco friendly and even adults are going to find them rewarding.
The cover price of £8.99 for an activity book might sound expensive, but the book is gently educational and used correctly it will inspire over a full year. I'd like to thank the publishers for sending a copy to the Bookbag.
Slightly older children might benefit from The Nature Explorer's Scrapbook by Caz Buckingham and Andrea Pinnington or it could be used as a follow-on when the full value has been had from Nature's Day: Out and About. Older children will appreciate Wilfred and Olbert’s Totally Wild Chase by Stephan Lomp and Hidden World: Forest by Libby Walden and Stephanie Fizer Coleman. You might also appreciate Outside: A Guide to Discovering Nature by Maria Ana Peixe Dias, Ines Teixeira do Rosario, Bernardo P Carvalho and Lucy Greaves (translator).
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You can read more book reviews or buy Nature's Day: Out and About by Kay Maguire and Danielle Kroll at Amazon.co.uk Amazon currently charges £2.99 for standard delivery for orders under £20, over which delivery is free.
You can read more book reviews or buy Nature's Day: Out and About by Kay Maguire and Danielle Kroll at Amazon.com.
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