Poco Mountain Girl

I have to confess: one of my main temptations in life is to buy books…lots of them. I usually keep it well under control, using the local library to stave off the worst of my cravings. But last week I picked up this book at our neighborhood Bargain Factory. I got the $35 book new for $4.49. Since then, Zia and I have been reading it, and we both really like it.

It’s not really a book to read straight through to a 2 1/2 year old, but it’s great for looking at the pictures and giving a few details about the animals, and a few more the next time you read it and then a few more. Otherwise the kid’s attention span goes a little haywire, you know? Of course, I sometimes forget she’s waiting on me to talk about it and I get caught up in reading it to myself. The book is that good.

Between this one and a couple of other animal books we picked up at the library, it struck me just how incredibly amazing the animal world is. Emperor penguins are crazy birds! Crazy…as in full of unbelievable fortitude, survival skills, and intuitive parenting instinct.  Maybe a bit silly, too. Did you know that if one of the father penguins has no egg to keep warm, he keeps a little ball of ice carefully balanced on his feet as if it were an egg? That’s so funny! Maybe kind of like the human father who protectively grasps his pillow through the night, thinking he’s got the baby? (Not David, of course.)

Growing up Wild highlights 6 different animals: Indian tigers, emperor penguins, polar bears, cheetahs, mountain gorillas, and grey kangaroos. It’s large-format and full of really great photos; almost a coffee-table sort of book, the kind people buy to decorate their living room, not to actually read. But I don’t fit the norm there; being a reader, I actually read it. I’m kind of strange in the way that I’m still amazed by what you can learn just by reading books. It’s almost like you’re right out there tracking the animals in their habitats, taking notes, making discoveries. Only it’s all right from my own living room floor, sitting cozily in front of the heater, sipping peppermint tea.

Well, I’ll stop rambling and let you go do whatever it is you do on a late-winter’s evening. Me and my girl, we’re going on safari.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, March 9th, 2010 at 3:36 pm and is filed under Earthy Possessions, Nature, Reading. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.