Be a Nature Explorer! Outdoor Activities and Adventures

As a young girl one of the highlights of my annual holidays in the Devon countryside was identifying wildflowers with my dad. In particular I enjoyed using a guidebook to find out more about the specimens we collected. If only such a book as Be a Nature Explorer! had been available to me then, a love of the outdoors could have been nurtured from an early age. Alas I have only come to appreciate nature in all its glory relatively recently.

Through Greystone Kids I have become a serious fan of Peter Wohlleben’s amazing books on trees and nature. He is a New York Times bestselling author with The Hidden Life of Trees and Can You Hear the Trees Talking? and his passion as a foreste shines through his work. In this engaging book for 6 years upwards we have an impressive translation from the original text with helpful illustrations throughout by an award-winning illustrator.

I found this handy sized book very well laid out. The Contents page itemizes the 52 activities within, one for each week of the year. Peter introduces himself and the purpose of the book before explaining What to Take with You on your explorations and A Few Tips Before You Set Off. Practical help occurs throughout the book, for example teaching valuable organizational skills to the youngster ‘Include the matching page number from the book when you record your find’.

Fun activities include Using a Forest Telephone, Snacking on Sweet Blossoms, Drumming for Earthworms and Playing with Tickly Grasses and Sticky Burs. The latter reminds me of hikes on Brownie Pack Holiday and communicates how the natural world is there to be discovered throughout the generations.

Please grab yourself a copy of this five-star book and share it with the young people with whom you have contact. There is so much to learn from what exists around us. For me a love of flowers persists. I was fascinated to learn that the difference between North American columbines and those in Europe is the fact they have ‘evolved long spurs to accommodate the long thin tongues of hummingbirds, which feed on their nectar’.