Non Fiction Picture Books Take Us Outdoors

     Visit Alyson Beecher on Wednesdays for Non-Fiction Picture Books at Kidlit Frenzy -- hashtag #nfpb2020! Thanks to her hosting and sharing and those who add their posts, you can discover and celebrate terrific nonfiction picture books! 

             
        We had snow in Denver last night. It was very cold, but when I woke up, the sun was out and sparkles were everywhere. As I stood and watched for a while, two chickadees were busy at a large cottonwood in my garden. It is old with deep grooves in the bark and that is where they were, digging into the grooves -finding breakfast! I've read that they hide seeds in those grooves and return on cold winter days to eat.
          I tell this story because Marcie Flinchum Atkins includes the chickadee in her book explaining 'dormancy' in nature, how plants and animals enter it, using the minimum of energy to survive. This isn't always in the winter months. For some, like the crocodile, just a cold spell can make them "pause" and burrow into the mud until it warms up again.
           Atkins has created a book that feels poetic, celebrating the evolutionary characteristics of animals and plants when they go dormant. She uses that word "pause" to great effect in varied situations. She asks readers to imagine being that creature, then tells what "you" would do. For example, she writes "If you were a dormant chickadee on a cold winter night, you would . . . cool down/slow your heart/save energy. For just a few hours, you would pause." She continues with the next step, in case of the chickadee, it would wake up and fly. 
            I enjoyed that included are a variety of living things like trees, ladybugs, Arctic ground squirrels and alligators. Each one differs in its surviving action. Some go into this "pause" for only a few hours, like the chickadee, and others rest for a whole season, like trees. Also, various awakenings are explained, as in leaves unfurling on trees or ladybugs which "wiggle awake, feast, flit away."
            Back matter explains the different terms of dormancy: diapase, hibernation, torpor, brumation, and estivation. One interesting fact included here is that some scientists use the word "torpor" for bears in winter instead of "hibernation". 
            Each part, whether going into dormancy or coming out, is illustrated with beautiful close-up photos. There is further reading which includes books and websites and photo acknowledgments. Because Atkins mentions Laura Purdie Salas' poetry book Snack, Snooze, Skedaddle: How Animals Get Ready for Winter, here is my review which I also shared on Kidlit Frenzy.
             Wait, Rest, PAUSE - dormancy in nature is a book that adds an extra for learning about changes in the environment that cause changes in animal and plant behavior, showing it is not only "hibernation", but more complex and varied in nature. It's a terrific book!