The rhyming text nimbly provides a glance into the life of a variety of birds, insects, and aquatic and land animals that live in this habitat. The large black text is enclosed in boxes that direct readers' eyes, and contrast nicely with the lush setting of the illustrations. Neidigh leaves no doubt about the swamped vegetation and busy life of the forested wetland; the colorful artwork depicts the vegetation, moisture, and dense fauna of this environment in a visually striking and informative way. VERDICT An easy-to-read informational picture book to complement a biodiversity science unit on wetland habitats for early elementary school classrooms.
—Kathia Ibacache, Simi Valley Public Library
Neidigh’s incredibly detailed, realistic illustrations, all double-page spreads, are the real draw here, giving kids up-close views of the animals: the delicate wings of a darner as it captures a mosquito, each leg sporting tiny hairs; a fish’s individual scales; the brown bat’s fearsome-looking teeth. Many of the animals are hunting and/or catching prey; the bobcat carries a rabbit to her kittens.
This beautifully illustrated informational picture book takes readers on a journey through a full day in a forested wetland. Readers will meet numerous animals in their natural habitats and learn about their days through rhyming, poetic text. The detailed, realistic double-paged illustrations are the star of this book, showing readers incredible up-close details of the animals in action.
Engagingly written by Kevin Kurtz and beautifully illustrated by Sherry Neidigh, "A Day in a Forested Wetland" enables children ages 8-11 to join in a journey through the aquatic habitat of a forested wetland and learn about the birds and bobcats, the beavers and beetles, and other wildlife that call the soggy forest home. This rhythmic, nonfiction look into a typical day for the animals that live in this wet habitat is an especially an unreservedly recommended addition to family, elementary school, and community library wildlife picture book collections for children.
Author Kevin Kurtz gives young readers a glimpse of life in a forested wetland, moving through a period of twenty-four hours. There seem to be as many creatures active during nighttime hours as there are during the day. Each spread in the book introduces a creature along with where it lives or how it finds its food or how it protects itself from predators or how it moves around its environment…The most compelling thing about the book, though, is the illustrations that fill every page with realistic pictures and lots of beautiful details. Illustrator Sherry Neidigh has clearly done her homework and exhibits her love of the subject matter. Youngsters will want to spend a lot of time searching the pages for all that Neidigh has packed into her drawings. The soft colors portray this quiet place perfectly. Four pages in the back have educational games and information for use in the classroom. Kids will love this.
A Day in a Forest Wetland is one where you get to go on a rhythmic journey through a habitat full of animals that spend their time hunting for their next meal. Wetlands have always fascinated me, probably because I live in Florida where there are protected wetlands. This book is great to introduce children about all those animals that are living the circle of life within the wet habitat.
The definition for wetland is land consisting of marshes or swamp. Certain animals live in forested wetland habitats, and A Day is a Forested Wetland is an engaging book for children to discover what might go in in a forested wetland on a particular day. Told in rhythmic form, this book is illustrated with brown bats, bobcats, beetles and other wetland creatures.
Handsome illustrations rely on details and soft colors to highlight the topic and accompany the engaging text that teaches readers about a forested wetland. They have the chance to learn about the various species that live in that particular habitat as well as making note of the importance of keystone species such as beavers that can make changes in the places they live. As the back matter indicates, some of the changes that cause last long after the beavers have moved on to another home. As is typical for the publisher of books such as this one, there are four additional activity pages that allow students to learn even more about the forested wetland and apply some of their newly-acquired knowledge. —Barbara
Forested Wetlands are filled with life. On a walk, you might be able to see some of the animals. There are many others that you probably will not. Author, Kevin Kurtz’s new book “A Day in a Forested Wetland” lets readers explore the lives of the various creatures that roam about day and night. Illustrations by Sherry Neidigh, show details that are rarely seen in the life of these mysterious wetland creatures.
Green darners rise with the sun to hunt flies while snapping turtles wait to ambush prey. Sunset brings forth bats, frogs, flying squirrels, and a bobcat family. The cadence of the rhyming text is appealing and readily accessible for readers. The narrative is packed with fascinating information about the diverse inhabitants of this ecosystem – from Caddisflies armoring themselves with rocks to barred owls hunting crayfish.
The illustrations enrich the text and are drawn in the natural palette of the environment with colorful patches of color to highlight special moments.
This book will be a good addition to any K-2 classroom or library read aloud lesson for work with rhyme, vocabulary, sentence fluency, and lessons for the Next Generation Science Standards in the area of Life Science.
Birds and bobcats and beetles, oh my! Learn about these creatures and more in this picture book for fans of Wild Kratts, National Geographic Kids magazine, and nature in general. Realistic illustrations add to the non-fiction facts told in engaging rhyming verses. Astute readers will recognize some of these critters from real-life encounters, and adventurers may set out to a marshland to seek out others. Educational activities are included in the back pages for those who want to learn more.