Customer Reviews

My Nature Book

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
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1 star:		(0)

 

 

This journal is full of inspiration! Beginning with a few helpful tips on journal writing, it goes on to encourage close observation of the incredible wonders we are surrounded by.

Ms. Kranz's "thought-starters" are truly intriguing. They motivate the writer to delve into their imagination and discover nature right outside their door when they can't go further.

Fascinating facts, included in the margins, help foster respect for the natural world around us. For instance, do you know why lightning bugs glow, or how long it takes for a glass bottle to decompose? Fun projects, like making a "water window", will keep your kids running outside to test new ideas.

What an amazing asset for parents who would like to share the sights, sounds, and smells of the natural world with their children. John Ruskin is quoted, in one of the margins, as saying, "Nature is painting for us, day after day, pictures of infinite beauty if we only have the eyes to see them." This journal will help your children, and you, to develop those eyes. What a gift to give!

Highly recommended for any child old enough to write. Also, see Linda's other journals listed on this site.

Nature...pure magic! This author has very capably crafted the keys that allow the reader to unlock doors to a magnificent world too many of us have never explored. My Nature Book is a privately guided journey, a magical journey to places that each of us should make a part of our lives forever. Congratulations, Linda Kranz, you have created an amazing map for the fountain of youth.

MY NATURE BOOK: A JOURNAL AND ACTIVITY BOOK FOR KIDS

Fantastic Author and A Great Nature Journal

By Jerry Flack, Professor Emeritus, University of Colorado and children's literature consultant, Denver, CO.

In a short time span Linda Kranz has become the master creator of journals. Kranz has created a minimum of seven journals for such diverse groups as young students (ALL ABOUT ME: A KEEPSAKE JOURNAL FOR KIDS), teenagers (THROUGH MY EYES: A JOURNAL FOR TEENS) as well as exceptionally fine journals for both mothers and fathers to create and later share with their children. Now, the very imaginative Kranz has branched out into subject matter disciplines with her newest journal, MY NATURE BOOK: A JOURNAL AND ACTIVITY BOOK FOR KIDS (NorthWord Press, 2004).

MY NATURE BOOK: A JOURNAL AND ACTIVITY BOOK FOR KIDS opens with an excellent example of a nature-based journal entry penned by Kranz after a weekend family trip into the wild. Next, she provides useful hints (but never stifling restrictions) on how to best create a nature journal. Some of her hints include always dating journal entries and describing sounds and smells as well as things seen. Kranz utilizes what she refers to as "thought starters" to help young naturalists begin writing in their journals. One example of such a prompt is to write about firsts: first fish caught, first climbing of a tree, and the first swim in a lake. Excellent quotations are also utilized as inspirations for journal writing. One such example is Dorothy Thomson's lovely verse, "I am inclined to think that the flowers we most love are those we knew when were very young." Nature facts also are intended to inspire writing. For example, Kranz provides fascinating information on such creatures as the hummingbird, namely that it lays the smallest eggs of any bird and consumes half its weight in sugar every day! MY NATURE BOOK contains more than journal prompts, however. It is also filled with fun, stimulating, and delicious activities. The author gives directions for creating an imaginative Nature Box plus a recipe for banana bread muffins and bread so that no naturalists will go hungry on an excursion into the woods.

The full-color illustrations by Linda Garrow and John F. McGee are extremely vibrant and most fitting for a nature journal. They are extremely appealing and will draw young writers quickly into the joy of this extraordinary journal.

Parents, grandparents, and aunts and uncles seeking the perfect gift for beloved younger family member need look no further. MY NATURE BOOK: A JOURNAL AND ACTIVITY BOOK FOR KIDS is the perfect send off gift for any child venturing off on a nature expedition. Enjoy!

Author, Linda Kranz, has found yet another way to share her love of journaling for young people by asking young writers to share their love for nature. All children are drawn to the wonderful world of nature around them and whether they are a city child or a country child, this journal will inspire them to begin writing down their experiences. From a more personal note, I raised two sons who would never be caught writing in a journal as children, but if "My Nature Book" had been available when they were growing up, they would have jumped all over this. It is fun, encouraging and allows the young writer to relive over and over the mini adventures they experienced and shared with natures world. Suggest "My Nature Book" in holiday stockings, for birthdays or just because every child can never, ever have too many books that are fun!

I agree with all of the other reviewers- it really is inspiring and is a great start for journaling nature experiences. I would have loved to see some photo pages as well as the drawing pages (we like to do both)and a spiral type binding would have made the book easier to use.

Awesome book. So beautiful and full of journal prompts, activities, and ideas for all seasons of the year, weather you are a backyard nature lover, or a backpacker or camper. Excellent journal for kids to take to summer camp. Lots of space for journaling and drawing. A keepsake.