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.

When a Tree Falls....

 

When a Tree Falls: Nurse Logs and Their Incredible Forest Power 

by Kirsten Pendreigh; illus. by Elke Boschinger 

44 pages; ages 6-9

Chronicle Books, 2025

theme: trees, ecology, nonfiction

A tall tree suns and sways. She is a place to grow, to rest, to shelter.

Over time and seasons we see what animals nest on the boughs, chip into the bark and, after the tree crashes to the forest floor, hide beneath the fallen trunk. Using lyrical language, Kirsten Pendreigh shows readers how the fallen tree nurtures new life.

What I like about this book:

The language is beautiful and spare – just enough words to convey meaning without cluttering up the page. This leaves lots of room for the beautiful illustrations by Elke Boschinger. I love how she tucks fungi along the edge of the tree, and the details of the mosses growing on the trunk – these are the same things I find on fallen trunks in the woods behind my house.

I like the arc of the story, which spans many years over which children grow into adults with their own children, who they bring into the forest to admire the trees. And I really like that Kirsten includes back matter that explains what nurse logs are, how they nurture new life, and how they keep the forest healthy. 

Kirsten graciously answered a Couple Questions: 

Me: When did you know you had to write this story about Doug fir and hemlock?

photo by Carrie Marshall

Kirsten: I've been fascinated by nurse logs since I first moved to the West Coast 30 years ago. Trees growing out of other trees! I felt there was something profound happening, and noticed how kids gravitated to these tree nurseries. About six years ago, while hiking the trails near my home, a refrain came into my head and became kind of an incantation. "A tall tree suns and sways...she is a place to grow, to rest, to shelter." The words kept building and became a life cycle story I was excited to write, and share with little ones.

Me: I love that you say in back matter that all species are connected and we all need to help one another. Did this guide your writing of this book?

Kirsten: I'm not sure it guided the writing but it was just organically there all along. I didn't know when I started writing that Douglas firs themselves typically don't grow out of nurse logs even though nurse logs in this part of the world are typically fallen Douglas firs! Western hemlocks are the most common species to grow out of Douglas fir nurse logs, so right there is a clear example of a deep connection. I learned that nurse logs help salmon survive, when they fall across streams they create sheltered pools for young salmon to grow. We are starting to understand how crucial it is to have diversity in the forest; how webs of life depend on a variety of species, how single species stands of trees are not as resilient as diverse forests. The more you look, the more you see these interconnections in nature. There is such strength in diversity. I hope it's an understanding people can take beyond the forest.

Beyond the Books:

Observe a tree. Describe what does it look like from far away. Now get under it and look up. How would you describe it? Draw a picture or take photos of your tree from different points of view. 

Examine a fallen log. What do you notice growing on the trunk? What about beneath it? Can you tell what kind of tree it is and how old it is? Are there any baby trees growing on it?

Stand tall like a tree. Here’s a video showing a kid-friendly yoga “tree pose.” Can you feel yourself rooting into the earth?

Kirsten is a member of #STEAMTeam2025. You can find out more about her at her website, www.kirstenpendreigh.com

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 publishers.

Oh my Crikeys! It’s tadpole season

 

We Are the Wibbly! 

by Sarah Tagholm; illus. by Jane McGuinness

32 pages; ages 2-6

‎Bloomsbury Children’s Books, 2025 

theme:  frogs, life cycles, nature

We are eggs. We are egg friends. We are the Wibbly.

I love frogs. Maybe not quite as much as I love bugs (which frogs eat – but that’s another matter altogether), but still, when I saw the title of this book I absolutely knew I had to read it! 

Fortunately, you can read it too, as it released earlier this week. 

Subtitled “A Tadpole’s Tail” this book is all about the frog lifecycle. It’s basic biology at its most humorous, as we follow along with our narrator who begins their story as one of the many eggs in a mass of frog eggs. Or, as they call it, “the Wibbly.” And it’s a nice life until things start happening: they get tails. They learn to swim – faster when there’s a “hunger-muncher” following them. They sprout hind legs. Front legs. Finally – in the nick of time – they achieve frogdom! 

This book is also about more than biology. What happens when you’re the last one to develop a tail? What happens when you are perfectly fine being just who you are and a leg unexpectedly sprouts from your torso?

What I like love about this book: I love the way Sarah Tagholm invites readers into the world of the Wibbly. She helps us see tadpole development from the tadpole’s point of view – their egg friends have gone “longish.” Then they … “Oh My Crikeys!” … burst out of the wibbly and begin “water-flying.”

I love the language. I have now incorporated “oh my crikeys!” into my basket of useful phrases for when unexpected – er, Stuff – hits the fan. I love the back matter, where the “true” story of the frog life cycle is presented. And I love Jane McGuinness’s illustrations created with a combo of mixed media, inks, and photoshop. She gets the perfect expressions on the frog faces when they discover their hands! Sorta reminds me of my granddaughter when she discovered her hands…

If I rated books, I'd give this one 5 lily pads!

Beyond the Books:

Listen for frogs and toads calling. Go outside in the afternoon on warmer days to a pond or wetland area. Find a comfy place to sit or stand and just listen. How many kinds of frogs can you hear? These recordings can help you learn a few of the calls.

Create your own wibbly. Gather some friends and find a space big enough for some jumping. Then start by crouching down like eggs in a mass, all snug together. When you’re ready to be a tadpole, lay on your tummy and wiggle. To begin turning into a frog, your hind legs grow out – so “fast swim” (or run) a few paces. When your front legs grow, you’re a real frog. Hop, frog, hop!

Brainstorm your own words or phrases to say when something surprising and unexpected happens. Here are a few words to get you started: yikes! Gee whiz! Holy smokes! Please share yours in the comments.

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 publisher. 

Go fish!

 Fourth-grade students in a neighboring town participate in the NY state Trout in the Classroom project. So when I saw Mary Boone’s newest picture book, I knew I had to read it!

School of Fish 

by Mary Boone; illustrated by Milena Godoy 

32 pages; ages 4-8

Albert Whitman & Company, 2024 (releasing Sept 5)

theme: fish, nature, life cycle

Shiny, jellylike balls float down, down, down…

coming to rest at the bottom of the fish tank. They’re salmon eggs, and Emmy’s class will raise them and then release the fish into a river when it’s time. This book follows the salmon’s life cycle, from egg to alevin to fry to release day. Along the way, the students learn about more than fish; they learn about ecosystem connections. And they learn how to work together for the good of the fish.

What I like about this book: OK, I will confess that my absolute favorite scene is when Emmy tells her classmates that it’s fry day – and they day, “no, it’s Thursday.” Fry day is a huge day for fish – and for the students, too. Now they get to feed the fish! And I love that Emmy searches for the “perfect” release spot for her salmon on Release Day. Also, there is back matter where kids can learn more about salmon life stages and review some of the words introduced in the book.

This book was so much fun to read that I just had to ask Mary a couple questions.

Me: Did you spend time at schools observing the salmon-raising? And if so, did you talk to students and teachers about their project? 

Mary: I love research – especially hands-on research. To learn about this program, I spent time in a handful of schools, observing lessons, learning the ins and outs of caring for the baby salmon, and talking with teachers and students. I also participated in a half-dozen salmon releases, including one that included thousands of students.

To learn more about salmon in general, I also started volunteering with the Hood Canal Salmon Enhancement group. I’ve helped monitor juvenile smolt traps, assisted with DNA testing as part of a project aimed at increasing Steelhead populations, and planted trees in an effort to create a better habitat for salmon.

Me: What cool things did you learn while working on this book?

Mary: I grew up in the Midwest, so I started out not knowing much about salmon at all. I learned so many cool things. I love that I can now tell the difference between the different species of salmon. I think it’s cool that salmon change color over the course of their lives. I love that spawning salmon find their way back to the same stream where they were hatched.

The part of my research that made me really happy was when I met teachers who are able to use this Salmon in the Classroom program across different subject areas: writing about the salmon, drawing them, doing math problems to figure out how far a salmon might swim in a month or throughout its life. The students in those classes truly are getting the most out of this program.

Beyond the Books:

Find out what kinds of fish live in the rivers and lakes near you. Draw a picture of one of your local fish.

Paint with a fish. It sounds a bit … fishy, but here’s what you do: roll ink onto a clean fish and then press paper against it to transfer the print. Before you press roller to scale, though, spend a few minutes looking at your fish. Write down some words that describe their mouth, their fins, their scales. What does your fish feel like? Here’s instructions for painting/printing your fish.

Make an underwater viewer to look for fish and other critters living in a local stream, pond, or lake. All you need is a half-gallon milk carton, some plastic wrap, and rubber bands. Here’s how. 

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 copy provided by the publisher.

If a Tree Falls...

 

One Day This Tree Will Fall     

By Leslie Barnard Booth; illus. by Stephanie Fizer Coleman 

40 pages; ages 4-8 

Margaret K. McElderry Books, 2024

theme: trees, ecology, life

Look at it. Wounded, worn, twisted, torn. One day this tree will fall and this story will end.

But before that day, we should know how this tree began as a tiny seed, folded inside a cone. Using lyrical language, Leslie Barnard Booth shows how this tree grew, surviving the challenges of storm and wildfire. And she shows how, even as it dies, it provides life for the forest.

What I like about this book: I love how Leslie shows a Douglas fir tree as more than just a tree; it is a habitat for hummingbirds and squirrels, spiders and insects. Even after it falls it continues to provide a place for moss and fungi to grow, a home for ants and salamanders, and hollow spaces for larger animals to curl up and nap. This is a perfect life cycle story, accompanied with lovely art. You’ll never look at a tree the same way after this. And there is Back Matter! So if you want to learn more about life, death, and life after death in the world of the Douglas fir, Leslie’s got you covered.

I’ve got an oak trunk lying beyond my garden that I’ve been watching for the past handful of years. It was struck by lightning and threatened to fall, so we had to cut it. Most went to firewood, but the trunk was so big that we decided to leave it to nature. It’s one of my favorite places to explore (currently at the lichen, moss, fungi stage). So I knew I just had to ask Leslie a Couple Questions:

Me: How did you come to this structure, this way of telling the story? 

Leslie: The seed of this story came from a few places. At the preschool my children attended and where I worked for a time, a group of kids in another class were doing this amazing study of a rotting stump. They were dissecting it and learning about all the little critters that lived inside it. At the same time, I was reading Peter Wohlleben’s The Hidden Life of Trees. This book made me think of trees differently—as responsive organisms with dramatic life histories. The incredible drama of a tree’s life is often hidden from us because it occurs on a timescale too long for us to observe and appreciate. But in a book, we have all the time we want! We can spend 1,000 years watching a single tree! So, I knew I wanted this book to cover a tree’s whole life, and to be dramatic—to show the tree’s active struggle to live. I decided I wanted the reader to care about the tree, to love the tree, to identify with it, so that the idea of the tree eventually falling and dying is sad. But then, I wanted to prove to the reader that trees live on, even after they die. Which is true! A dead tree, as those preschoolers discovered, is absolutely chock full of life. So, knowing that’s what I wanted to accomplish, it occurred to me to set up the story of the tree almost like a cradle to grave biography, but one where the concept of “grave” is upended. Because, in the context of a forest ecosystem, a tree’s story has no end. 

Me: Did you explore other ways of telling the story?

Leslie: The initial version of the book was called GROW and it included more emphasis on the way the tree reacts and responds to its environment. My editor wanted to really focus in on the tree’s death and decay as the heart of the story, and she was so right! Which is all to say that the basic structure stayed the same, but that I had to chisel away some major pieces to make space for the book's central theme to really come through. 

Thank you, Leslie. And now, let’s do some activities that take us…

Beyond the Books:

Go log-looking. When you find a downed trunk or a stump, take some time to really look at it. Draw a picture of moss, lichens, fungi and other things growing on your log.

If you find a small log, look around it. Are there nooks and crannies for animals? If you can roll it a little bit, see what’s hiding under it – just remember to roll it back.

Collect tree seeds and plant them. Acorns, pine seeds, maple seeds, sycamore, buckeye … put a couple seeds in an old yogurt cup with some soil and see what grows! Just be mindful of where you plant it once it starts growing. 

Leslie is a member of #STEAMTeam2024. You can find out more about her at her website.

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.

Spring Books Bring Trees & Frogs

Trees are leafing out and frogs are singing. Spring is bringing new life to woods and wetlands, and I’ve got two fun books to share for the season.

theme: life cycles, trees, frogs

A few years ago I reviewed a book by this author/illustrator team. I am so happy to share this new book about how the world’s tallest trees grow up.

Rise to the Sky 

by Rebecca E. Hirsch; illus. by Mia Posada 

32 pages; ages 5-10

Millbrook Press, 2023 

What is the tallest living thing? It’s not an elephant or a giraffe or even a blue whale.

You can probably guess, but you have to turn the page to confirm that it’s a … tree! But not just any tree. In this book, Rebecca Hirsch highlights eight of the world’s tallest trees – trees that grow at least as tall as the Statue of Liberty. That’s about 305 feet tall or, comparing to whales, about 3.8 Blue whale-lengths.

Rebecca shows how tall trees begin as small seedlings, sprouting from old stumps or growing from seeds. She tells how they breathe, move water and nutrients, and rise up, up, up to the sky.

What I like about this book: The text is fun to read and easy for young children to follow. And the back matter tells more about how trees grow, what phloem and xylem are, and how long tall trees can live. Rebecca also includes a couple hands-on activities at the back. But wait! There’s more! Mia Posada’s cut paper collages add amazing texture to the pages, making me want to stay and explore the illustrations. And, there is a great vertical book-turn to give these giant trees the space they need to Rise!

Where there’s trees, you might find tree frogs. At least in my neck of the woods. 

One Tiny Treefrog: A Countdown to Survival 

by Tony Piedra, illus. by Mackenzie Joy 

‎40 pages; ages 4 - 8 years

Candlewick, 2023

Ten tiny tadpoles grow in their eggs.

This is a fun count-down book that shows the lifecycle of a red-eyed treefrog.

What I like about this book: I love the expressive tadpole faces, the illustrations, the fun language – and the notes that identify the different animals by common name and scientific name. There’s also a fun book-turn so you can see the tadpoles plunge “plink, plink, plink” into their new, watery home. And I love that there is back matter! One section tells what it takes to become a red-eyed treefrog, with some additional “survival” notes about the different stages. A great book for any frog-loving kid.

Beyond the Books:

Create some cut paper art to show some of the nature you see outside. You might use watercolors to paint paper to use for your collages, like Mia Posada does, or snip your colorful bits from old calendars and magazines. 

Sit outside or open a window and listen to frogs. Don’t think you have any? I’ve heard tree frogs when standing in a restaurant parking lot in downtown Ithaca, NY.

How tall are the trees where you live? Here are some ways to figure out tree height.

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.