Salamander Season
by Jennifer Keats Curtis & J. Adam Frederick; illus. by Shennen Bersani
32 pages; ages 4-8
Arbordale, 2015
This is a story about salamanders, told from the perspective of a girl who goes into the woods with her dad. They find a vernal pool and check out the salamanders marching from the woods to the water. Later, she finds eggs (“small mushy cases… as big as softballs and as firm as Jell-O”). When the salamanders hatch, her dad takes two back to his lab to study. He’s an environmental scientist, so he knows how to keep baby salamanders safe.
What I like about this book: It gives a real up-close-and-personal view of salamander life. We see hungry predators and the young salamanders taking action to avoid becoming salamander snacks. The book is laid out like a journal, with entries describing what happens throughout the salamander season. It’s illustrated with a combination of child-like drawings and photos … very much like what you’d find in your kid’s nature journal.
Head over to Archimedes Notebook for beyond-the-book salamander activities.
It’s STEM Friday! (STEM is Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics)
