City Kids Meet Nature

This compact book, labeled and formatted as a field guide, introduces young naturalists to city wildlife. It ranges widely among organisms in urban areas including many familiar mammals and birds as well as skimming a few bacterium, viruses, protoctists, fungi, and plants into the mix. Including these latter life forms reminds readers that there’s a lot of life going unnoticed, much of it too small to even see, right around them. If, however, kids want to identify wildlife around them, the usual reason to get a field guide, including wildlife that literally cannot be seen is out of place. This latter issue rubs especially since so many more likely critters; ones that many kids will see around their neighborhoods, were not included.

Attractive illustrations are offered at one per entry and each entry is described in a few sentences. Don’t expect the kinds of details in adult field guides. No information is offered on variations in size and appearance by sexes, ages, and seasons which can be essential for field identification. Nor are ranges presented. What this really offers is a general introduction to the neglected part of nature outside kids’ front doors in an easy-to-browse format. For older independent readers. ( )