Through the Looking Glass Children's Book Reviews

Wild Backyard

Wild Backyard

Kate Riggs
Illustrator:  Fiammetta Dogi 
Board Book
For ages 2 to 5
Creative Editions, 2016   ISBN: 978-1568462875

A backyard may seem like a very tame and perhaps even a boring place, but if you look carefully you will discover that it is a mini wilderness that is full of wild creatures, all of which are busy doing something or other.

In this richly illustrated board book, beautifully detailed and gorgeously colored illustrations are paired with simple sections of text to take children into a garden at different times of  the year. They will meet a robin, a bee, a toad, a rabbit, a squirrel, and a mole in their environments.

Against the backdrop of snow a little robin “pecks a berry that falls from a bush.” In the heart of a lovely pink flower a bee “gathers pollen,” and later we see a toad that “slurps a fly with its long sticky tongue” as it sits in a forest of wild mushrooms,

This is a wonderful to book to share with children, a book that glories in the beauty that can be found in nature. As children meet the animal characters on the pages, they will, it is to be hoped, be inspired to explore their own backyard, or a nearby park, where butterflies flutter, birds sing, and where squirrels argue with one another.