Quick Booktalk
This brightly-colored volume is a collection of facts, poems, and illustrations celebrating the great outdoors.
About the Illustrations
Tim Hopgood uses his signature style to bring various aspects of nature to life. Some of his artwork is more abstract and impressionistic; other pages feature more technically correct representations of plant and animal life. Every page is bursting with color and full of interesting textual and visual details to pore over.
Story Time Possibilities
This isn't really a book to be read in one sitting, but certainly a page or two could be used in a story time or classroom to introduce a concept. The pictures certainly lend themselves well to being shown to an audience.
Readers Advisory
This book is divided into four seasonal sections, which makes it a handy book to use in a homeschool or brick-and-mortar school setting. Some of the items included are not necessarily unique to the season in which they are placed, but it is helpful to have seemingly disparate items organized in some way. In terms of content this book reminds me a lot of Outside Your Window: A First Book of Nature by Nicola Davies. I think it is most appealing to the 4-to-7-year-old age group, though my art-loving 8-year-old also seems interested.
Disclosure
I received a finished review copy of The Big Book of Outdoors from Candlewick Studio in exchange for an honest review.
