I wish this book had been around when my kids were little! But I still have a chance to share it with my youngest grandkids. There is a wealth of ecological relationships and life history of various birds, animals, and insects tucked into this thin story of a young girl's exploration of a nearby woods. Did you know Wood Ducks are born with special hooks on the end of their beak & feet so they can climb out of their tree nest? And that these hooks go away after the ducklings first exit?
There is a bibliography, if your reader wants more detail (likely geared towards older ages), but given the publishing date it's quite likely there are many other good references one could use.
While the Northwoods are my nearest ecotone, I'm looking forward to getting her other books on the prairie, tundra, and desert. Who knows what locale my grandkids might be inspired to explore and protect! ( )

One of a series of children's books highlighting different ecosystems from the pen of Jean Craighead George - see also: One Day in the Desert, One Day in the Tropical Rain Forest, One Day in the Prairie and One Day in the Alpine Tundra - this title follows the story of Rebecca, a young girl who, inspired by her naturalist uncle, spends the day in the woods, hoping to catch a glimpse the elusive ovenbird. Waiting patiently in various locations, and exploring different layers, from the canopy to the soil, Rebecca experiences all the magic of the forest, before finally discovering why her uncle describes the ovenbird as a "wizard..."

Although chosen as one of our September selections over in The Picture-Book Club to which I belong, where our theme this month is ecosystems, One Day In the Woods is actually less of a picture-book than an advanced storybook with the occasional illustration. Despite the fact that it isn't divided into chapters, I would say that it is well-suited to the beginning chapter-book audience. I would also say that, despite the mixed fiction/non-fiction format, it works better as an informational text than as a story. One never really believes that Rebecca is anything other than a device to allow the author to impart her information about the woods. Still, the information is valuable in its own right, so this might work well as an assigned reading for school, or for young readers with a particularly strong interest in the subject. ( )

Although the subject matter of Jean Craighead George's One Day in the Woods is both interesting and informative, I find that both the general plot and the narrative style are much too textbook-like for my personal tastes, at times bordering on being almost too wordy, too descriptive, too minutely detailed for an illustrated chapter book supposedly geared towards recently independent readers (I don't want to call the narrative tedious, but some of text does feel like that for and to me, especially the constant mentions of the specific times of the day and calendar date).

Personally, I have always had a rather short attention span and tend to be quite easily distracted, and I actually felt myself drifting right out of the narrative on more than one occasion (and I wonder wether children, especially recently independent readers or children with a short or shorter attention span might also experience a similar reaction, especially if they are not all that interested in ecology in the first place, have just a passing, remote interest, or a recently developing curiosity about ecology and nature). Throughout the book's 52 pages, it does seem as though Jean Craighead George often bombards the reader with information upon information regarding ecology, nature, wildlife. I often felt like I was reading a detailed science textbook, a textbook filled with lists, explanations, academic digressions (and the constant barrage of information, while definitely of interest to me, did become somewhat of a chore to read, process and appreciate).

I do think that One Day in the Woods could be a great resource to use in an elementary or middle school science classroom (as an easy-to-understand textbook or perhaps as an adjunct to more complex, detailed, longer science materials). In a classroom setting (or for homeschooling parents), this book would likely be a hit with many students and make the subject of ecology more approachable than longer, more informationally involved textbooks could/would. And the fact that the author has listed a number of bibliographical references is not only an added bonus, it greatly enhances the teaching and learning potential of One Day in the Woods (allowing for additional reading and research by both students and teachers). However, for simple pleasure reading, I do tend to believe that unless a young reader is intensely interested in ecology, One Day in the Woods just might be a bit too wordy and too filled-to-the-core with facts upon facts to be an absolute reading joy (or success).

As to the accompanying black-and-white illustrations by Gary Allen, while they are lovely, I think that they definitely present more of a decorative trim than an integral part of the text (although I do like his depiction of the flying squirrel, the huge eyes of which could be used to point out that mainly nocturnal animals often have larger eyes in order to be able to see better at night). I think that while the illustrations do add to One Day in the Woods, I also believe that this book would still be an interesting, informative read without the illustrations (they somewhat augment the story, but are not actually necessary for and to the plot). ( )

This is a book that is about a girl who goes into the woods looking for a bird. The reason why she goes looking for this bird is because her grandpa tells her all about the bird. Her grandpa tells her that it is a magical bird so she sets of into the woods to find the bird. What she finds out is the woods itself is very magical.