Nature All Year Long

In her first book for children, nature artist Leslie does a commendable job of taming an enormous range of information. She presents nature as it shifts in time: animals who do and don't hibernate; birds that migrate; life cycles of baby deer, mice, frogs and woolly bear caterpillars. She further examines rain and snowflakes, the sun's changing angles on the earth, Native American names for the moon, fall seeds and changing leaf colors and holiday festivals. But Leslie's comprehensive work suffers somewhat from excessive organization, as she superimposes a month-by-month calendar onto natural phenomena better suited to seasons. However, this is a minor fault in a book that parents and children will no doubt read by the season. The author selects animals and plants of interest to, and accessible to, children in the suburbs and rural areas of New England. Her full-page watercolors of field and pond life will engage younger readers, while her smaller, more intricate ink and colored pencil illustrations will satisfy the yen of older budding naturalists for accuracy and detail. Ages 7-up. (Oct.)