Salamander Rain: A Lake & Pond Journal
Kristin Joy Pratt-Serafini
Take a close look at your local lake, pond or woodland pool. Don't mind the mud - see it from a kid's eye view. Here is the journal and scrapbook of Klint, a young Planet Scout who kept notes for a year on his discoveries.
Take a close look at your local lake, pond or woodland pool. Don't mind the mud - see it from a kid's eye view. Here is the journal and scrapbook of Klint, a young Planet Scout who kept notes for a year on his discoveries and became engrossed by the daily drama of turtles, crayfish dragonflies and water skimmers.
After writing and illustrating three best-selling nature books as a teenager, Kristin Joy Pratt-Serafini has now created a model nature journal. Based on her cousin Klint, she portrays an inquisitive boy who keep a journal/scrapbook as he explores lakes and ponds. The result is both fun and informative. David Sobel, co-director of the Center for Environmental Education, raves about this book as "a gift to the place-based education movement in North America. This lusciously illustrated picture book/field guide/treasure hunt is just the invitation teachers, parents and children need to get them exploring the ponds and lakes in their neighborhoods." The journal format creates a text that is easily accessible, but deep in information and intrigue.
SRAIN-P Paper $7.95 ISBN 1-58469-017-8
SRAIN-H Cloth $16.95 ISBN 1-58469-018-6
Ages 6 to 12 32 pages Fully illustrated 10½" x 9"
Children's Book Council & National Science Teacher's Association
Outstanding Science Trade Book for Children 2000
This delightfully entertaining book for children ages 6 to 12 is an all-you-need-to-know compendium of lake and pond life. The facts fly fast and furious in segmented boxes on each page, and kids will gladly gobble up the information if they're not too enthralled by the gorgeous artwork. Information is presented as a collection of clippings, letters, and informational blurbs collected by the character Planet Scout Klint, who records his observations from February to January. The text includes reports from Klint's fellow Planet Scouts and the author, Kristin Joy Pratt-Serafini, who also illustrates each page with educational borders and multi-layered depictions of birds, bugs, fish, and plant life. The book presents the creatures that abound in North American lakes and ponds, including salamanders, the great blue heron, wood frogs, fishing spiders, pond crayfish, beavers, common loons, turtles, and many others. This fun, colorful, and joyful book will inspire children to investigate lakes, ponds, and other natural areas.
Its hard to imagine a parent or child who would pick up this book and not want to take it home (or out to the pond!) for repeated readings; each page is so chock-full of visually stimulating information that one reading is not enough. Young pre-readers also will delight in the colorful fun depicted on each page, be it o ducks, dragonflies, or Klint himself peeking out from under a water lily after capsizing his grandmother's canoe in the lake. Pratt-Serafini wrote and illustrated three previous books in her teens - A Walk in the Rainforest, A Swim Through the Sea, and A Fly in the Sky - and her sense of youth remains undiminished by college graduation and marriage. With her obvious love of nature and fine eye for detail, Pratt-Serafini serves youth sumptuously well with Salamander Rain.
New Age Retailer - September 2001
This lusciously illustrated picture book/field guide/treasure hunt is just the invitation teachers, parents and children need to get them exploring the ponds and lakes in their neighborhoods. Be prepared . . . the author's infectious joy will reach out and tickle you enough to get you to put on your boots, grab a net and make your own discoveries.
David Sobel - Co-director, Center for Environmental Education
Nature educators are thrilled with this "journal," which acts as an already-filled notebook of an enthusiastic child. The boy, and his older sister, explore their neighborhood pond, a lake by their grandmother's house, and other nature-filled areas. The pair report on plants, wildlife, insects and birds and, at the end, offer tips on how to clean up a pond, other books to read and environmental websites. Full of realistic-looking notes about educational, but fun observations, Salamander Rain is great for kids 6 to 12 who love the outdoors.
Copley News Service - Kid's Home Library - Lee Littlewood
(Syndicated column in over 200 newspapers in U.S. & Canada)
This simulated scrapbook is assembled by "Klint," who, in his third year as a Planet Scout and member of its Wetland Patrol, has gathered together his own notes, encyclopedia articles, clippings and drawings to help identify various kinds of salamanders, frogs, birds, and other inhabitants of ponds, lakes and bogs. Their complex and vibrant systems are delightfully depicted in this very special book. Let's go lie on our stomachs next to the nearest pond and find out what's going on. And then, when we're forced to go indoors, our by-now-insatiable curiosity can be fed by consulting the list of websites and other books listed at the end of this totally engrossing work.
NAPRA Review - July/August 2001
It's a jungle out there. Sometimes we forget that we are only one of countless species flying, swimming, tunneling and scurrying on the third rock from the sun. We still have no clear notion just how many creatures are endangered by the negligent stewardship of Homo sapiens, the currently dominant species of mammal. While biologists labor to identify the unknown animals and protect the known, authors and illustrators turn this feast of information into a golden age for children's non-fiction. Never before have young people had available so many beautiful, fact-filled books about our fellow creatures. There are more good new books about animals than we can possibly do justice to here, so we'll serve up only the cream of the crop.
. . . Equally beautiful and fact-filled are two new books from Dawn Publications. Salamander Rain written and illustrated by Kristin Joy Pratt-Serafini, examines a neighborhood pond by following fictional children's studies of it, from lyrical portraits of map turtles to the children's index-card notes. Salmon Stream, written by Carol Reed-Jones and illustrated by Michael S. Maydak, employs a different narrative style, following salmon (rather than a whole ecosystem) through a season. Both are impressive.
BookPage.com - Children's Books - August 2001
Wild places like wetlands provide habitat for a diversity of plants and animals and they are great for hands-on explorations of nature. This colorful book is an invitation to kids to learn and care more about ponds, lakes and other wetlands that are found closer to home than we think.
Beth Stout - National Wildlife Federation
There are more than 100 million acres of freshwater wetlands, each the source of wonder, each in need of protection and stewardship. This scrapbook, a yearlong lake and pond journal purportedly kept by a young boy, is filled with drawings, notes, articles and interesting trivia. The title refers to the time when salamanders migrate from the forest to pools to raise their young.
The user friendly format includes vibrant watercolor illustrations and extensive information about animal and plant species. There's also a short list of web and book resources, including how to join the Planet Scouts, an ecological organization for kids..
Kidbooks (April 2001
