Brittle Stars & Mudbugs: An Uncommon Field Guide to Northwest Shorelines & Wetlands [Paperback]

Patricia K. Lichen (Author), Linda M. Feltner (Illustrator)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 7, 2002

Birds that walk underwater. Slugs that mate while suspended in midair. Frogs who star on Hollywood soundtracks. The Pacific Northwest abounds in natural wonders, and here are field guides as interesting as the world they describe. Filled with both amazing and amusing true-life tales about Northwest plants and animals, this new series of uncommon field guides will appeal to the casual observer and the avid naturalist alike. Each of these illustrated books describes more than sixty plants, animals, and natural phenomena of a particular Northwest habitat. Author Patricia Lichen combines standard field guide information about habitat, appearance, and range with delightful and engaging descriptions of the little-known facts, surprising details, and amusing-- even bizarre-- tidbits rarely found in ordinary field guides. Discover how amazing the Northwest natural world really is with these uncommon field guides.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Patricia Lichen worked for eight years as a U.S. Forest Service interpretive naturalist in Washington and Oregon. She is now a freelance writer living in Oregon City, and an essayist on Oregon Public Broadcasting radio.

Linda Feltner is a wildlife artist and graphic designer whose work has been shown in solo exhibitions, reproduced in books and magazines, and used in national park interpretive exhibits. She lives in Seattle.

Product Details

• Paperback: 208 pages
• Publisher: Sasquatch Books (January 7, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 157061220X
• ISBN-13: 978-1570612206
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.4 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.7 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,726,183 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Patricia K. Lichen has done all but one of these things:

* left the White House in the back of a paddy wagon
* studied dolphins in the Florida keys
* dislocated her knee in the rigging of a topsail schooner
* been arrested in Peru for piracy
* learned tapdance from Rusty Frank
* been a Girl Scout leader
* chained herself to harpoon guns on whaling ships to prevent them from killing whales
* shared an office with Jesus Christ
* danced the hula in front of 50,000 at Aloha Stadium
* steered a 130 foot trawler through the Panama Canal
* lived on a commune in Tennessee
* stood inside an active volcano
* discussed shoes in American Sign Language with a chimpanzee

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Field Guides need illustrations for ALL the animals/plants!, February 11, 2002

By 

Tracy Clark (Tacoma, WA United States) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Brittle Stars & Mudbugs: An Uncommon Field Guide to Northwest Shorelines & Wetlands (Paperback)

I bought two of the books in the 3 book series. The writing is excellent, however, what good is a "field guide" if illustrations are not included for all of the featured plants and animals? If the publisher is ever going to consider a new edition, perhaps this could be taken into consideration. I will keep these books, however still look for a "Field Guide" that offers more reference material.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A delightful, personal introduction to the NW shore life, July 26, 2002

By 

noname (Ann Arbor, MI) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Brittle Stars & Mudbugs: An Uncommon Field Guide to Northwest Shorelines & Wetlands (Paperback)

This delightful little book is an absolute pleasure to read. It fits nicely in the hand, the pages are easy to read, and the illustrations are gentle and lovingly drawn. The author tells you stories about these animals, plants and algae the way she would if you were walking with her along the beach and came across each specimin. It's not ordered by phylum or habitat, but apparently randomly, which ensures that you won't tire of reading all about fish, but instead will move quickly to birds and seaweed and echinoderms and back.

I live on the beach, and volunteer at the Seattle Aquarium, and these stories help me tell compelling stories to audiences and friends of all ages. They bring the funny objects you see on the beach to life, and make each animal or plant that you see seem a friend, a neighbor, someone whose life you care about. This should slow your steps on the beach, so that you will see the life around you more clearly, and should increase your commitment to conservation and cleanup. It's tough to abuse a neighborhood that you care about, and Patricia and Linda bring these organisms close to you so that you will care about them.

As an earlier reviewer pointed out, this is not a field guide that will help you identify what you see -- it is one that will help you understand what you see, and that's what makes it uncommon and (in my opinion) so very special.

Thanks to the author and illustrator for such a magnificent addition to my library of field guides and books on biology. This one is a treasure.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Uncommonly delightful, August 12, 2006

By 

J. Douglas - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Brittle Stars & Mudbugs: An Uncommon Field Guide to Northwest Shorelines & Wetlands (Paperback)

"Brittle Stars..." was the first of Lichen's "Uncommon Field Guide" series I discovered. They are all uncommonly delightful to poke into. One can read them chapter-by-chapter or just open the book anywhere and delve in. I picked up this one to add to my school's marine biology collection. After scanning it, I bought a second copy for myself. After reading part of it, I ordered the other two books in the series. Recently I showed one of the guides to a friend who is a lifelong outdoorsman. He immediately purchased a set for himself. She gives the reader the sort of understanding about nature one usually only finds in going on a field tour with a great guide. My only complaint is that there is not one of Feltner's lovely detailed illustrations with every single chapter.