This book for readers 5 and up tells the story of Anna Botsford Comstock, born in 1854, who became a pioneering naturalist. The author explains how Anna wanted to study nature - especially insects. Anna went to Cornell to study and also developed her skill of drawing what she saw, using a microscope to ensure accuracy. The author writes, “Her bugs looked so real they almost crawled right off the paper!” One professor even started using her pictures as visual aids during his lectures.

She became known as an expert on nature. In the Afterword the author tells us that in 1895, New York officials consulted her for help when farms began producing less food because more farm children left for cities instead of staying home to work family fields. Anna discovered that New York schools weren’t teaching any classes about nature, so students didn’t gain any appreciation for the land. She decided to help by designing lesson plans about the mysteries of nature which “captivated curious teachers.” Soon, nature classes sprang up everywhere. Anna also asked teachers to take their classes outside, so “nature itself could teach children.” Several schools agreed, “and the children became wild about nature!” In 1898 she was appointed Assistant Professor of Nature Study at Cornell University - the first woman to held the title of “Professor” at Cornell.

Anna then wrote and/or illustrated books and textbooks about nature, collaborating with her entomologist husband John Henry Comstock. Her most popular book was called Handbook of Nature Study, and despite having over 900 pages, the author writes that when it was released in 1911, “it flew off bookstore shelves like swallows soaring south in summer.”

Anna died in 1930 but her books lived on, her handbook having been translated into eight languages and reprinted dozens of times.

Quotations from Comstock are interwoven into the text.

Evaluation: This book is perfect for younger readers, with its easy words and appealing watercolors by Jessica Lanan showing flowers and insects and nature scenes. Today’s children can use a reminder of all the wonder that is just outside and not found on their smart phones or videogames. ( )

I loved this book! I had no idea about the story of Anna Comstock. This book encourages curiosity about nature in young children. Also, this book shows that women can accomplish anything they set their minds too! ( )

picture book biography about various colors in nature.Ages: 3-7. Source: Pierce college fort steilacoom library early childhood shelves.

picture book biography, about someone I never heard of, and me a nature girl ... ( )