“In three words I can sum up everything I've learned about life: It Goes On.”
Robert Frost

Tuesday, August 7, 2012

Learning About Cute Animals....

Remember when you were a little kid and they would have story time at the school or library.  Do you remember that the books sometimes were huge and they had large illustrations to get your attention? As you progressed in school, the illustrations got smaller and there were less of them.  One day you picked up a book and there were no illustrations at all.  What a shame!

This fantastic book proves that by combining nature, science and art you can provide an exciting teaching opportunity for everyone, even adults!  The book I am featuring today is by the author and artist Margaret Waring Buck. The book is titled Animals Through the Year, published by Rand McNally, 1941.



Margaret Waring Buck was born in New York in 1905, she lived most of her life in Mystic, Connecticut, until her death in 1997.  She was an illustrator and naturalist who produced several self-illustrated books about animals life in the wild. Her books included both black and white drawings and stunning colored images depicting animals amongst their native settings.



 









Her art shows a somewhat "humanized" version of animals interacting with each other.  I happen to adore this type of art and love how she portrays the fox mother above.  Do I see a bit of a smile on her face? The baby fox (kits) are patiently and cutely waiting for their dinner. Buck was careful about the details in her art and depicted the plants, insects and animals in their appropriate settings. 



She supplied informative but uncomplicated text just right for a young naturalist beginning to learn about the subject.  The background information for this particular book was gleaned from the Chicago Academy of Sciences and from exhibits at the American Museum of Natural History in New York.






"Animals know about the Seasons---
The seasons of the year are just as important to animals as they are to us.  Animals know that winter will be  followed by spring.  They know that in summer there is plenty of food.  When autumn comes, they know that winter is on the way and they know what they must do to get ready for it.  Animals Through The Year will tell you how twenty of the most common animals of North America live during the four seasons......" 
                                               Margaret Waring Buck


This wonderful book is available at CraveCute on Etsy.


10 comments:

  1. Its a lovely book Diane - her sense of colour is very striking and the effect she achieved is amazing. The pages you have shown made me want to read the whole book!

    I don't know if you can see my posts again but I thought you might like the second last one I posted (on Saturday) of the 'cat' scenes - it reminded me of the Christmas book you featured when I first found your blog.

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  2. You find the most lovely things, Diane. These illustrations are beautiful - I love this kind of book too. I especially love the little raccoon, so very cute!

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  3. This is so sweet. I love the image of the fox family, and how the father fox takes care of the mother fox by bringing food. I do remember how much I loved those big books with lots of photos in them when I was a kid. Just one of those things you miss when you outgrow it.

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    1. Her details are wonderful. As a gardener you may recognize some of the plants. In the fox picture I see trillium and perhaps bloodroot!

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  4. YES I do remember...thanks so much for sharing. This is exactly the sort of book I would have pored over as a kid. :)

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  5. Dear Diane - what a lovely book that you just shared. Imagine it was published in 1941 and Margaret lived until 1997. This makes me want to check her book out. Thanks for showing us this piece of art. God Bless!

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  6. A lovely book and wonderful illustrations!

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  7. How precious. I don't know why, but it reminds me of Peter Rabbit, which is quite nostalgic for me, so there's some connection there on the finer, cleaner, simpler illustrations conveying so much beautiful.

    Happy seeing beautiful!
    http://seeabeautifulworld.blogspot.com/

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  8. We're back again. :)

    Just wanted to let you know that we're having a See Beautiful blog hop today if you're interested. We're seeing lots of beautiful (just to dangle the carrot a bit):

    http://seeabeautifulworld.blogspot.com/2012/08/pay-it-forward-freeze-for-kindness-and.html

    Happy seeing beautiful!

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