Book Reviews: Choices for Children

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Twig’s Guide: My Old Growth Forest

by Charles Eshbach

North 40 Publishing • ISBN: 978-1-4675-2565-7 • $12.95 Softcover

Photographer/guide Charles Eshbach lives in the Keweenaw Peninsula, home to amazing old-growth forests. In this delightful, brilliantly helpful little book, Charles uses his photography, knowledge and neighborhood trees to shed light on forest growth and importance. The text, photos and drawings are engaging and witty.

Told by Twig, the seedling pine, this tale for children is a helpful guide to one of our northwoods forests for all ages.

North Woods Girl

by Aimée Bissonette, illus. by Claudia McGehee

Minnesota Historical Society Press • ISBN: 978-0-87351-966-3 • $16.95 Hardcover

This charming story celebrates North Woods life and different roles for women. The little girl who narrates this tale visits her unconventional grandmother who lives in the woods. Up North, hardy woodswomen are familiar neighbors, but this book, with distinctive scratchboard illustrations, enlightens the rest of the world with a grandma who is not the stereotypical “sweet old granny,” baker of cookies. Instead she takes her granddaughter out to sit on a log and watch nature go by.

To me, the book recalls the likes of Justine Kerfoot and Dorothy Molter and I can picture them in their cabins.

Despite this grandmother’s claim that she’s not “a good-looking woman,” her love of the woods makes her – and this book – extremely attractive.

Hungry Coyote

by Cheryl Blackford, illus. by Laurie Caple

Minnesota Historical Society Press • ISBN: 978-0-87351-964-9 • $16.95 Hardcover

Up North, many of our neighbors have feathers and wings or four feet and tails. That’s why the bear that triggered the safety light while ambling through our backyard just a few nights ago didn’t faze us. Frankly, given our dog, aka only child, we’d rather have the bear than the many curious, grub-seeking skunks. That said, we respect both skunk and bear and give them plenty of neighborly space.

What we Northlanders take for granted, though, this lush book with its lyrical text and illustrations brings into view for those in big cities. Cheryl follows the life of Coyote through four seasons, always on the prowl for food, whatever the weather and always, it seems beside some reminder of people, be it children in a pond or a simple memorial placard near its rocky den. She ends with more information about coyotes and what to do if you spot one in your city.

The realistic illustrations add a pleasing component when reading the book aloud for children. Although this setting is Minneapolis, folks in cities on our Lake Superior shores certainly appreciate sharing space with wildlife, from deer to moose to the canine components of fox, wolves and coyotes. For us, life in or outside a city wouldn’t be the same without our neighbors.

Underwater Adventures with Louis and Louise

by Stephen T. Schram, illus. by Kimberly Vandenberg

Orange Hat Publishing • ISBN: 978-1-937165-85-7 • $14.99 Softcover

Stephen packs a lot into his slender volume about the adventures of two young lake trout near the Apostle Islands. Within the series of short tales are observations about underwater habitat and fisheries, lessons for how to treat others, a trip through the Soo Locks and warnings about altering eco-systems and introducing invasive species.

For little budding naturalists, this fanciful book also gently introduces a variety of fish species, their traits and habitats through the fish that Louis and Louise meet. The simple stories are easy to consume and can be read aloud one at a time or together in one sitting. The few underwater-toned illustrations perfectly complement the text and make one wish there were more of them.

While the moral of each story varies, the moral of the book comes down to these lines within it: Louis and Louise listen eagerly, letting their minds absorb the new information. They loved learning.

This book, perhaps, will encourage little children to be like Louis and Louise.

A Bird on My Hand

by Mary Bevis, illus. by Consie Powell

Raven Productions • ISBN: 978-0-9883508-9-2 • $17.95 Hardcover

My great nephew used to call chickadees “Nana’s Birds” because they always hung around his grandmother’s house near Island Lake, Minnesota. Chickadees are very bold little birds and this book tells both a lovely story of a boy visiting his grandmother and of learning how to entice chickadees into his hand to eat.

Of course, Grandma has already done the hard work of getting them acclimated to humans, but the story show children how patience pays off with the natural world. It’s a great inspiration for young birders, too.

The story instructions without being didactic and the engaging illustrations add information.

I love the tips on how to get your bird-feeder friends to alight on your hands, plus the factoids about chickadees, what kinds live where and some information about them, their likes and their life cycle. (I did not know they weigh as much as two quarters – but I will once I use my mitten to lure them into my hand.)

This book is going to make a fine gift for my sister to learn so much more about her Nana Bird’s.

The Littlest Loon

by Robert Kutter, illus. by Debra Johnson

Sunray Printing Solutions • ISBN: 978-0-615-87717-4 • $16.95 Hardcover

With a book created by two teachers who live on the same lake in Minnesota, it should be no surprise that this sympathetic tale finds a way to educate about being good neighbors to Minnesota’s state bird.

After a placid beginning to its life, the July Fourth rush of boats, personal watercrafts and waterskiers creates a dangerous territory for a tiny loon chick.

Saved by a couple in a small motorboat, the loon gets reunited with its parents and grows into a young adult – ready to fly south for the winter.

With appealing illustrations and a simple, straightforward text, this book will be good for a read aloud for your littlest loons or a read alone for a more advanced elementary reader.