Skip to main content

Crinkleroot's Guide to Giving Back to Nature

By

Crinkleroot's Guide to Giving Back to Nature
by Jim Arnosky
G. P. Putnam's Sons, 2012.  48 pgs.  Nonfiction

     Jim Arnosky's gentle old backwoodsman teaches kids simple things to do to restore nature while enjoying it.  Most of Crinkleroots ideas require a simple give and take.  "Sometimes giving back to Nature means helping provide food when an animal is hungry."  So if you put a birdfeeder in your yard, you can give the birds food.  Sunflower seeds for blue jays, grosbeaks, and chickadees; millet for pigeons, sparrows, and juncos, etc.  If you give to Nature by smearing peanut butter and sunflower seeds on a tree trunk, Nature may bring a woodpecker into your yard for dinner. Some of Crinkleroot's suggestions seem obvious:  pick up your trash, use your dead leaves and grass clippings to make compost, etc. Some ideas were new to me:  don't let your dogs and cats outside in the winter because they may keep birds away from their food, or chase animals like deer who need to conserve their energy to survive in the cold.  One of the best things about this book is that it doesn't have the accusatory tone that many "green" books have; i.e., human have wrecked nature so shame on you and back off.  On the contrary, Crinkleroot welcomes children's interactions with the wild world.  If you catch a bug or a lizard, don't keep it longer than fifteen minutes and then try to return it to exactly where you found it.  If you aren't fishing for food, Crinkleroot explains how to catch and release smaller fish without harming them.  Interactivity is also a hallmark of the book.  Crinkleroot describes how and why to leave a corner of your lawn wild, and then invites his young readers to find the creatures that will live there--two caterpillars, one snail, a garter snake, etc.  Some of the recommendations in this book will need to be adapted for children living in desert country.  For instance, if you plant a tree in Utah and only water it a week until the rain takes over . . . . Not happening.  Crinkleroot's Guide to Giving Back to Nature is a fantastic primer for youngsters curious about the natural world who want to live gently in it. 
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Funny Farm by Mark Teague 2009

By Anonymous
There are things I liked about Mark Teague's newest book, Funny Farm , and things I didn't like. Where should I start? I'll do the "didn'ts" first. The illustrations show animals personified. Well, some of the animals are. The main characters, Edward, and his farm family relatives, all dogs, are humanized. They stand upright, do farm chores, eat at a table, wear clothes, knit (yes, with paws) and sleep in beds. Most everybody else on and around the farm, who are also animals, act like animals. They are outside, roll in mud, live in the barn, and require care from their owners. It struck me the most on the page spread where there are pigs playing in puddle in the rain and Edward, a black and white boxer, watches from inside the house. I thought "You're a dog! Go play with them!" But, alas, he can't, seeing as how he goes through his entire visit to the farm wearing a suit and red bow tie. Another picture that bothered me was the maple syrup pa...
Post a Comment
Read more

The Girl Who Could Fly by Victoria Forester 2008

By Anonymous
J Fiction 328 pages I almost didn't finish this book. I got to Chapter 4, and was just about ready to quit (a kind of slow story about a girl, name of Piper McCloud, who discovers she can fly, parents freak out, she becomes a social outcast, yadda, yadda) but suddenly, right there in Chapter 4, the story takes a sharp turn and becomes really interesting . Piper finds herself in the company of others like her, but not "fliers", and under the care and authority of Dr. Hellion. I won't even tell you any more. Read this book. Forester does a great job of keeping you wondering who's the good guy and who's the bad? Piper is a likeable, strong, endearing character that girl readers will enjoy. But don't NOT give it to boys! The main male character is an extremely intelligent young man who is one of the ones you wonder about . . . good or bad? This is a good one, well worth your time.
Post a Comment
Read more

Review: Super Boba Cafe

By
Super Boba Café By Nidhi Chanani New York: Amulet Books, 2023. Comics. 215 pages. 14-year-old Aria is excited to spend her summer in San Francisco getting quality time with her Nainai. She loves helping at her grandmother's Super Boba Café. But she can't help but notice that her grandmother is acting strange and secretive. She refuses to let Aria into the kitchen at all and she disappears at the same time each night without telling Aria where she goes. Meanwhile, Aria is eager to drum up more business for Super Boba Café. She gets a major windfall when the shop cat, Bao, surprises them by having kittens, and Aria realizes this is a major social media opportunity. She knows this will help Nainai's shop, but she is apprehensive to get back on social media after a terrible cyberbullying experience she had back home. As the shop starts to get busier, Nainai is more and more anxious about her secret project. This prompts Aria to investigate with help from her Nainai's neighb...
Post a Comment
Read more