Spring is a Season for Hatching!

themes: Animals, nature, growing up, eggs

Watching and Waiting: What Hatches from Nature's Nurseries

By Sara Levine

32 pages; ages 4-8

Millbrook Press, 2025  

When you find something interesting and beautiful 

… what should you do? Should you poke it and prod it? Open it up to see what’s inside? Granted, that is the way curious naturalists discover things. But if you open things up, then what’s inside won’t grow anymore, says Sara Levine. So maybe you could wait?

What I like about this book: Using gentle, lyrical language, Sara ponders how one might observe nature without harming it. In particular, she offers strategies for watching how eggs develop and waiting to see what hatches out. She draws examples from birds, insects, amphibians, and reptiles. Back matter discusses what eggs are, egg cases and galls, and how to be an “observational scientist” – something anyone can do. The photos are gorgeous and will have children looking closer to study the details.

Sara is a member of #STEAMTeam2025. You can find out more about her at her website, www.saralevinebooks.com She's also a guest author joining me at the 5th Annual Arthropod Roundtable over on the GROG Blog on April 16. 

Butterflies come from eggs. But what happens when they grow up?

When a Butterfly Goes to School (Board Book)

by Laura Purdie Salas; illus. by Chloe Niclas 

7 spreads

‎Creative Editions, 2025

What does a butterfly do at school all day? From art class to science, story time to lunchtime we follow swallowtail and her friends.

What I like about this book: I have to confess that I loved the lunch break the best – the butterflies zip and sip their way through the flowers. The luscious artwork supports lyrical prose as the words ask us to suspend reality and join a butterfly on a normal day at butterfly school.

Beyond the Books:

Go on a gall walk. You can find round galls on the stems of goldenrod, bumpy galls on leaves, and fluffy galls on leaves as well. Find out more about galls – and see some examples – here and here.

Birds aren’t the only animals to lay eggs. Find out what other animals lay eggs, and what kind of eggs they lay. 

If you were a butterfly, what sort of things would you learn at school? What might you do in art class? In science? At story time? At play time?

Today we’re joining Perfect Picture Book Friday. It’s a wonderful gathering where bloggers share great picture books at Susanna Leonard Hill's website. Review copies provided by the publishers.

Explore Outdoors ~ Spring Bingo

 

 

 

Here's a few links to get you started:

How to measure a raindrop 

Follow a bumble bee 

listen to bird songs 

Peek under a log

 

 

Sing a Song of Salamanders...

Last week it was the Wibbly. This week it’s wiggly, squiggly salamanders. I knew I would love this book the moment I saw the cover, and I was right!

Salamander Song 

by Ginny Neil; illus. by Charli Vince 

40 pages; ages 4-8

Tilbury House Publishers, 2025

theme: citizen science, salamanders, nature

Autumn sings here, “Ready! Set! Swish!”

We meet the salamander at the end of salamander season – in the fall when it’s ready to burrow in for the winter. But soon, sleet raps and taps. The pond fills. Water slips and drips “into the deep and tickles the salamander out of its sleep.” Fortunately, there are people who are ready and willing to help the salamander and its friends cross the road to the safety of the vernal pool. 

What I like love about this book: The language is lyrical and luscious. There is rhyme without being a rhyming book, and there is a rhythm to this story that culminates in the chant on the last few pages… a chant that almost sounds like a salamander fight song. The illustrations invite children to spend time on the page noticing details. As a whole, this book encourages kids (and adults, too, I hope) to head outside on a wet night to check out the seasonal amphibians. And maybe get involved in Big Night, when folks help frogs and salamanders by slowing traffic for amphibian crossings. Back matter includes an author’s note and four community science projects that kids can get involved in.

I had to ask Ginny One Question.

Me: Your book has the feel of someone who's gone out and helped salamanders cross the roads. Have you?

Ginny: Although I have never participated in a Big Night salamander event, I am a Master Naturalist and as part of my training I visited vernal pools. Our leader, a salamander expert, netted various salamanders including a rare Jefferson salamander, and we saw balls of breeding toads (called toad balls) in which many males climb atop one female and the resulting mass forms a ball that rolls and roils in the pond. We also pulled up spotted salamander egg masses cemented to underwater vegetation, and our guide talked to us about the shrinking number of vernal pools available for these mass breeding events. 

Months later, I read an article about a citizen science project called Big Night, which takes place on the first night of a warm spring rain. This is when ordinary people gather and provide help for all the amphibians trying to reach vernal pools across the road from their wintering grounds. It was an intriguing idea and since I have done many citizen science projects with students I wanted to write about the idea of ordinary citizens working together to add data to the scientific community. Since all amphibians are counted as they cross, this was an interesting way to approach it. The book follows the salamanders and humans through the season until they meet on a night of salamander rain.

I love salamanders. My boys kept some red newts ( no longer legally permissible because of disease) in a terrarium  when they were growing up and we find them all the time around our mountain farm. All salamanders are considered an indicator species so when they begin to disappear we should be concerned.

Thank you for your salamander savvy. Ginny is a member of #STEAMTeam2025.  A couple of years ago we chatted about her book,  The Glorious Forest that Fire Built. You can find out more about her at her website, www.ginnyneilwrites.com

Beyond the Books:

Go on a salamander search. Choose a warm rainy night to go outside where you can listen for frogs croaking, toads trilling, and maybe see some slithery salamanders migrating toward their pond. If you don’t have salamanders living near you, check out these salamanders from North Carolina. So many kinds!

Why did the Salamander cross the road? You can find out in this article about the annual spring salamander migration in my neck of the woods.

Create a sensational salamander. You could use legos, carboard and paint, or crayons and paper to create a salamander that you’d love to see. You can even use the letter S as a salamander template, like this one from the San Diego Children’s Discovery Museum.

Today we’re joining Perfect Picture Book Friday. It’s a wonderful gathering where bloggers share great picture books at Susanna Leonard Hill's website. Review copy provided by the publisher.