Nature's Patchwork Quilt
by Mary Miche; illus by Consie Powell
32 pages, ages 4-10
Dawn Publications, 2012
Look into nature and you will see a patchwork of beauty and mystery.
topic: ecology and habitats
Just as a patchwork quilt has many pieces that fit together to make one larger blanket, so nature has many habitats pieced together to create one planet. This book explores key concepts of ecology by looking at different habitats. Mary Miche introduces children to interdependence, niche, and food chains. She shows how animals use camouflage, explains biodiversity and touches on species extinction. Miche devotes a page to the ecologists who clean up rivers, plant trees, write books, study science, make movies and organize others to speak for the plants and animals.
Each two-page spread is a quilt of plants and animals that make up a particular habitat: forest, desert, ocean, prairie. The illustrations are rich with color and detail that invite you to look closer.
what I like: each page is designed like a quilt, with patches of animals and plants that, together, create a whole. I like that, at the end Miche goes back to the concept of interdependence, pulling readers into the web. It is easy to understand why this book was selected as one of National Science Teachers Association's Outstanding Science Trade Book.
beyond the book:
Create your own nature quilt with photos snipped from wildlife magazines and old National Geographics.
Go out on a "nature quilt" walk and look for animals and plants that live in your habitat. How do they fit together into the larger pattern?