Tag: birds

Do Fairies Bring the Spring? – REVIEW

Valerie @ Valerie's Musings5 Comments

5 out of 5 stars.

Do Fairies Bring the Spring? by Liza Gardner Walsh, illustrated by Hazel Mitchell is an absolutely delightful and charming picture book about fairies and spring.

dofairiesbringspring

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Synopsis

Everyone knows fairies love spring flowers and summer sun, but is it the fairies who wake up the earth as the snow melts? Do they entice the trees to turn green and the flowers to grow? In this charming follow-up to Where Do Fairies Go When It Snows, Liza Gardner Walsh, acclaimed author of the Fairy House Handbook and Fairy Garden Handbook, explores the matter in a children’s picture book of rhyming questions. Combined with delightful illustrations by Hazel Mitchell this whimsical book will help children discover the world of fairies and learn to enjoy and appreciate the outdoors.

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Review

This book has wormed its way right into my heart! Now, I will admit that I love fairies anyway, but this book is absolutely charming!

The text rhymes and is nice and lyrical. The pictures are just beautiful, engaging, and full of little surprises. If you really take the time to look through all the pictures, you’ll see little ladybugs, snails, bees, other little bugs, and woodland creatures. There’s a decent amount of diversity within the fairy ranks, including a boy fairy, and our main fairy is black.

I cannot say enough about the illustrations! I’m absolutely charmed by them. They’re delightful! One page talks about using tiny brushes and oil pastels to paint the flowers and some of the fairies are holding little oil pastels that they’re clearly using to color the flowers. It’s just lovely.

The text is very lyrical. A few times the rhyming words were stretching it a bit, but they never broke the lyrical pace and flow. It’s also obvious that the illustrator really paid attention to the text when she made the illustrations.

I highly recommend this book for any fairy lover in your life! It’s just delightful!

*** Thank you to NetGalley for providing me with an ARC. I was not compensated for my review. All opinions and conclusions are my own. ***

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Mini Reviews – Bibliophile Mystery Series – Set #3

Valerie @ Valerie's MusingsLeave a comment

Welcome to the next set of mini reviews for Kate Carlisle’s Bibliophile Mystery series! You can find the first set of mini reviews here and the second set of mini reviews here. This set includes books eight (8) thru eleven (11). Number eleven (11), is the newest of the Bibliophile Mystery series, Once Upon a Spine.

Book Cover: The book stops here - room full of antiques - rocking horse, globe, telephone on top of a book shelf, trunk, and a chair and ottoman with books on them including a copy of 'The Secret Garden' - small orange and white tabby kitten is sitting on the ottoman.Book #8 – The Book Stops Here – 4.5 out of 5 stars

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This is one of my favorites out of the series. Number one, it includes one of my all-time favorite books, “The Secret Garden”, but number two, I also really enjoyed the mystery surrounding the book. I learned a little more about Frances Hodgson Burnett than I knew before and I just enjoyed the story line. It took me a while but I did figure out the murderer before the end. Still this is an awesome series and you should read it!

 

Ripped from the Pages book cover - Winery tasting room with wine bottle cubbies along the sides, bottles of wine on a countertop along with a cheese platter, books, and a small orange & white kitten

Book # 9 – Ripped from the Pages – 5 out of 5 stars

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I actually wrote a review for “Ripped from the Pages”. It’s one of my earlier reviews, so it’s perhaps not as full as some of my more recent reviews, but you can find it here. In short, it’s my favorite in the series so far (although the newest, Once Upon a Spine, is jousting with it for that coveted spot of “favorite”).

 

Book Cover: Books of a Feather: A Bibliophile Mystery by Kate Carlisle - Background shows a door open to a garden with a cat chasing a butterfly - Foreground shows a John James Audubon book with an ornate knife on it, a blue jay sitting on a pair of needle-nose pliers, and a cutting mat with an exacto knife and thread.

Book #10 – Books of a Feather – 4.5 out of 5 stars

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While I didn’t enjoy Books of a Feather quite as much as I did Ripped from the Pages, it was still a very good book. I liked it, it just didn’t bump Ripped from the Pages out of its spot as “favorite”. We get to learn more about Derek from his friend, Crane, in this book, which I thought was great. There’s also lots of great information about John James Audubon in this book which I also enjoyed. Check it out! 🙂

All of these mini reviews have been leading up to my review of the newest Bibliophile Mystery, “Once Upon a Spine”, which will be up in another day or two!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Birds of Washtenaw County, Michigan – REVIEW

Valerie @ Valerie's MusingsLeave a comment

2 out of 5 stars

The Birds of Washtenaw County book cover - photos of four types of birds on cover, Cedar Waxwing, Sandhill Crane, Blue bird, and possibly a gold finch

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alternating line of short green 6-hole birdhouse, short blue & red 1-hole birdhouse with a star, and tall 3-hole yellow birdhouse with heart
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Synopsis

The Birds of Washtenaw County, Michigan provides a comprehensive account of the birdlife in Washtenaw County. Situated to the west of Detroit in southeast Michigan, the county has an exceptionally rich history of ornithological study, fueled by the activists of numerous amateur birdwatchers and by the interests of two major universities.

Frequency accounts of the 267 species recorded in the county during the last 15 years are framed by a discussion of the topographical history of the county. In addition, the authors present notes on another 30 species not seen in the county since 1976. A comprehensive site guide offers suggestions of the optimal locals and times to try to find the birds.

Michael A. Kielb has studied birds in Michigan for over 15 years and teaches classes on birds at the Matthaei Botanical Gardens in Ann Arbor and the College of Du Page in Illinois. He also leads bird-watching tours throughout the Americas and is currently a Research Associate in the Reproductive Sciences Program at the University of Michigan.

John M. Swales first became interested in birds while teaching in the Sudan and has been exploring the birdlife of Washtenaw County since arriving at the University of Michigan in 1985. He is Professor of Linguistics and Director of the English Language Institute, University of Michigan.

Richard A. Wolinski has been studying birds of Washtenaw County for nearly two decades. He is a staff biologist with an engineering firm in southeast Michigan.

line of 5 birds' nests with 5 eggs inside each
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Review

I wanted to find The Birds of Washtenaw County by Michael Kield, John Swales, & Richard Wolinski useful. I wanted to like it. After all, this is my home county and I thought this might be a good resource to take with me to the park. Unfortunately, it’s not.

The information in this book is good, factual without being boring. The problem lies in the fact that there are very few illustrations in this book and the ones that are there are in black and white. This makes it very difficult to use this as an “in the field” guidebook.

Unless you just need information on birds you’ve already seen or only need information for informational purposes, this book is not for you. It’s not much help in identifying species since there are very few illustrations.