I spent a lot of time last month taking photos of bugs - a great many of them on flowers. Here are three that I particularly enjoyed.
Now it's your turn -
look for bugs on flowers
where you live
Wednesday, August 6, 2025
Friday, August 1, 2025
Noisy Animals!
I’ve been enjoying Darrin Lunde’s books for a while – and this summer he had two new books hit the shelves. What I really appreciate is that Darrin writes from his experience of being a biologist – he’s the collection manager in the Division of Mammals at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History in Washington, DC.
Themes: nonfiction, animals, animal behavior
Who's Making All That NOISE?!
by Darrin Lunde; illus. by Erica J. Chen
32 pages; ages 3-7
Charlesbridge, 2025
Rap tap tap! Rap tap tap tap!
Who’s making all that noise?!
Owl and squirrel and a bunch of other animals want to know because it is sure a LOUD hammering on a tree! Before we turn the page, though, can you guess who it might be?
If you said woodpecker, you would be right! Woodpeckers hammer on trees to find ants and other insects. They hammer on trees to communicate with other woodpeckers. And when they hammer on the side of my house, I’m pretty sure they’re doing it just to bug me!
From creaky clicks in the sea to grunts, roars, and quacks, readers meet seven animals who make their own kinds of noises.
What I like about this book: I like the format of paired spreads. The first presents the sound and asks “Who’s making all that noise?” There’s a brief description of the sound: it’s a loud blast of air, or it sounds like rumbling thunder. This makes for a fun read-aloud because you can pause … and wait … and let kids guess … before turning the page to reveal the Noisy Animal! Also, it’s fun to read the sounds. I also like that there’s back matter: a spread filled with facts about the noises animals make.
Some of Darrin’s books are being published in board book format – here’s one
Whose Egg Is That? (Whose Is THAT?) Board book
by Darrin Lunde; illus. by Kelsey Oseid
22 pages; ages 0-3
Charlesbridge, 2025
As with the book above, Whose Egg Is That? Is a nonfiction guessing game exploring the connections between an animal, its eggs, and its habitat. With fewer pages come fewer animals, in this case: emperor penguin, sea turtle, ostrich, robin, and dinosaur. The final spread shares fun facts about the featured critters – and their eggs.
Beyond the Books:
Listen to animals! Where? I sit on my porch in the morning and listen to birds. I go to the zoo where I can hear penguins and lions. And when the weather allows, I leave my windows open at night so I can hear frogs calling, owls hooting, and foxes screaming.
We’ll join Perfect Picture Book Friday once they resume. It’s a wonderful gathering where bloggers share great picture books at Susanna Leonard Hill's website. Review copies provided by the publishers.
Wednesday, July 30, 2025
Explore Outdoors ~ WELCOME BACK!
Welcome back from summer vacay! Just in time to meet a teensy flower that I look for outside my kitchen door every summer. It's so tiny it often goes unnoticed - but not this year.
Meet the Blue-eyed Grass!
I've got a few of these tiny (less than 1" across) flowers that pop up near my house when there's enough rain. They don't always look like flowers - in fact, their flat stems and blade-like leaves give them a bunchy "grass-like" appearance. Which is probably how they got their name, "blue-eyed grass" - though to tell the truth, I think they have more of a yellow eye.
These flowers aren't grass at all, but are related to irises. And when you see the seed pod it makes sense, as they look a bit like rounded iris pods. Blue-eyed grass is a native plant, and can grow as tall as 18 inches - though mine rarely grow taller than half-a-foot.
What color of eyes does the grass in your yard have?
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