nature

La Brea Tar Pits: The Undercover investigation

Stuck! The Story of La Brea Tar Pits by Joyce Uglow

November 5, 2024 by BlackRaven Leave a Comment

While the text was a bit academic, it also has some poetic tone to the writing of Stuck! The Story of La Brea Tar Pits. Joyce Uglow presents the theme of death in the tar pit in a tasteful manner. Overall things are well done, educational and adapted for multiple ages. Perhaps it is not the “best book ever,” but it is a solid science book. Uglow and Valerya Milovanova (the illustrator) created a younger looking (at first glance) story about how things over the […]

Everything is connected

The Secret Network of Nature: The Delicate Balance of All Living Things by Peter Wohlleben

October 6, 2024 by KimMiE" Leave a Comment

CBR16 BINGO: And Also, a repeat of the Earth Day square BINGO: Détente, And Also, Scandal, Tech, Rings Wolves in Yellowstone National Park support the beaver population. Salmon help trees grow. Ravens and wolves form an alliance against bears. Peter Wohlleben’s The Secret Network of Nature is filled with fascinating stories about the interconnectivity and delicate balance of our environment. Wohlleben is a German forestry expert who has written several bestsellers, including The Hidden Life of Trees and The Inner Life of Animals. Given my […]

The Strange, Fragile, Beautiful World

Vanishing Treasures: A Bestiary of Extraordinary Endangered Creatures by Katherine Rundell

October 4, 2024 by Pooja 2 Comments

It’s estimated that there are around 7.8 millions animal species on the planet, many of which we know little about. Unfortunately, some may vanish before we can learn much more – which is a pity, because the variety of life on this planet is far more wondrous and strange than anything our imaginations could conjure up. This is a quiet and contemplative peek at the natural world in easy bite-sized installments. Each essay discusses an animal species which threatened in one way or another, covering […]

Science begins at home (includes link to a fun video if you’re having a bad day)

One Wild Bird at a Time by Bernd Heinrich

September 14, 2024 by KimMiE" Leave a Comment

CBR16 BINGO: Earth Day, because it’s about observing birds and nature BINGO (diagonal): Bananas, Cult, Dreams, Earth Day, Rings Bernd Heinrich is a biologist/naturalist/professor who has written numerous books about birds and bird behavior. I’ve read some of his other books and found them to be a little dense, but he is clearly an expert in the field and an avid bird lover. In One Wild Bird at a Time, he encourage his readers to conduct their own experiments by closely observing the world around […]

Plant a seed watch it grow

The Pumpkin Seed's Secret: A Life Cycle Poem by Hannah Barnaby

September 13, 2024 by BlackRaven Leave a Comment

The autumn season is upon those of us in those regions. We get to have cool nights, crisp days, wind, rain, sun and sometimes within a 15 minute time frame! And there are changing colors of the leaves, crazy squirrels and the thought of pumpkins. And in this review we learn about the pumpkin in a way that allows us not to be scientifically bombarded with just the facts. When you read a book and the title (The Pumpkin Seed’s Secret: A Life Cycle Poem) […]

Space…. The adventure

Clouds in Space: Nebulae, Stardust, and Us by Teresa Robeson