Tag: flowers

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.

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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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The Secret Garden: A Flowers Primer – REVIEW

Valerie @ Valerie's MusingsLeave a comment

5 out of 5 stars

The Secret Garden: A Flowers Primer book cover - board book with green background, a watering can, various flower blossoms, butterflies and a snail

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Illustration of a garden gate with hollyhocks, daisies, roses, and spiky blue flowers with a bluebird sitting on top and a grapevine wreath near the gate handle
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Synopsis

BabyLit® is a fashionable way to introduce your toddler to the world of classic literature. With clever, simple text by Jennifer Adams, paired with stylish design and illustrations by Sugar’s Alison Oliver, these books are a must for every savvy parent’s nursery library.

Review

The Secret Garden: A Flowers Primer by Jennifer Adams & Alison Oliver (illus.) is part of the newer series of board books called BabyLit books. I picked it up to share with my niece but I think I ended up liking it more!

I really love this board book. It introduces the baby/toddler to different types of flowers and used quotes from the book to talk about them. The colors are vivid, the pictures engaging, and the amount of text just right so the child doesn’t get bored.

It’s a great introduction to flowers and nature for babies/toddlers.

Illustration of a garden gate with hollyhocks, daisies, roses, and spiky blue flowers with a bluebird sitting on top and a grapevine wreath near the gate handle
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Great Lakes Nature Guide – REVIEW

Valerie @ Valerie's MusingsLeave a comment

5 out of 5 stars

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Synopsis

This guide features over 400 species of plants and animals in the Great Lakes region. It includes extensive natural history, including animal behavior, ecology and range of species and native uses. There are color maps of the Great Lake States-NY, PA, OH, IN, MI, IL, MN and WI-showing parks and natural areas.

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Review

Great Lakes Nature Guide by James S. McCormac & Krista Kagume is an excellent all-in-one guidebook. I originally borrowed this from my public library, but after only about a week, I realized just how handy it is in the field and went and bought a copy for myself.

The book is separated into two main parts – Animals & Plants. Then each section is broken down into sections based on the type of animal or plant. Each item identified has a picture of the plant or animal, a small paragraph about the subject, and a handy little section on where the plant or animal can be found.

Is this the most comprehensive guide on Great Lakes nature? No, but I’ve never found one that is as inclusive as this one. I used to carry different guidebooks with me to the park for birds, trees, flowers, mammals, reptiles, etc. Even tho’ each one was a rather compact volume, the quality photo paper they used made the books rather heavy. Now, I carry this guide with me and the few things I don’t find in it, I take pictures of and study more at home.

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