Woodsy Wonders

I grew up on two and a half acres of woodland in northcentral Florida. That may not sound like a lot, but to a kid (or a property-starved metropolitan), it was a universe just begging me to explore. Fall was an ideal time to do so, as the southern sun had tamed a bit and the humidity subsided. I fondly remember scouring the ground for felled sweet gum balls, lichen, and other detritus— ingredients I added to a sodden tree hollow which, to the imaginative mind, was a cauldron of sorts, brewing an earthy stew. I kind of wish I'd had Michael W. Robbins's (a former editor of Audubon) and Henry W. Art's WoodsWalk (Storey Books, 2003) with me, however, to help teach me a thing or two about what I discovered—and direct me to other treasures I might have otherwise overlooked.

Winner of a 2004 Teachers Choice Award from Learning Magazine, WoodsWalk is a manageable introduction to the nature and wildlife  children might encounter while trekking through the woods. The first few pages discuss various aspects of forests—such as where they grow and what their life cycles are like. Four sections, each devoted to a season, follow. They describe the flora, fauna, and even sounds typical of that time of year, both in eastern forests and western ones. In fall, for example, kids might stumble upon the colorful caps of mushrooms. Lucky youngsters living in the west could even spy an elk rub on a tree, in the form of freshly scraped bark.

A glossary at the end provides a good starter list of nature-related words, while another page offers a few items to include on a woodland scavenger hunt—a neat game for a birthday party, I'd say, and a wonderful way to indoctrinate children to the great outdoors (it might be wise to have them check off the items they find from a list, though, rather than remove them from the forest).

"Once you come to know them, forests are enchanting, busy places," the authors note. Of course, the key is to get kids out into them in the first place.