Otters, Snails and Tadpole Tails

by Eric Ode; illus by Ruth Harper
32 pages; all ages
Kane Miller Books / EDC Publishing, 2019

Will I find you here
where cedar wears her mossy shawl 

With an otter as our guide, we meet the amphibians, mollusks, birds, mammals, insects, reptiles, and plants that inhabit a wetland.

What I like about this book: I love that the otter shows up in most of the spreads – as though they’re our tour guide. It reminds me of the time my youngest insisted there “might be otters” in our little stream and so we hiked the length of it – finding crayfish, insects, mammal tracks, birds … but no otter! And there’s a wonderful poem about the heron that “measures the morning in slow, perfect strides” – which perfectly captures the heron that stalks the river’s edge nearby.

I love Ruth Harper’s artwork. Can’t think of a medium more perfect for capturing the feel of wetlands than watercolors!

Head over to Archimedes Notebook for another book about our connections with nature, and some hands-on Beyond the Book activities.

It’s STEM Friday! (STEM is Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics)

Copyright © 2019 Sue Heavenrich All Rights Reserved.