For the nature nerd, nature lover, the inquisitive observer—this book is absolutely a MUST! Gorgeous illustrations, intriguing facts, fun how-to experiments and creations, creative writing pieces hodge-podged in-between. This book is a perfect companion for exploring outside and learning to appreciate the world around us! Highly recommend!

I am so excited to be doing all of these activities with my seven year old and the neighborhood kids this summer. We are shooting for 1000 hours outside this year and this book a great way to work on that goal. Great ideas and activities throughout the book that will be fun for all ages. I am excited to talk about it with families that come into my library looking for ideas.

This was such a beautiful book. The words were very poetic and the gorgeous pictures accompanied the information beautifully. I enjoyed learning all the different facts about animals, and the different crafts are things that kids would enjoy doing.

Overall, a very well-made book about nature that can be enjoyed by both kids and adults.

This glorious book invites children outdoors to embark on every type of adventure, from counting the species in an oak tree to searching the riverbed for aquatic dragonfly nymphs. With wonder and poetry, color and curiosity, Wild Child will stir the hearts of readers, young and old alike.

I was instantly drawn to this book for its content and stunning illustrations in the style of Oliver Jeffers, with a mix of hand-lettering that gives it that sense of whimsy. It offers a great mix of poetic writing and fun facts — even as an adult I learned so much and, for kids, it breaks down the information in a way that is easy to understand.

It would be perfect for that child who is already interested in the outdoors but also has a strong imagination to bring the words to life. It includes a wide range of outdoor-inspired activities, from wildlife and walks in the woods to gardening at home. The at-home activities and experiments expand on learnings from the book.

What’s more, I love a story told in the second person. It really sucked me in and put me in the moment using all five senses. I could read this book over and over and never fully absorb all it has to offer!

Wild Child is a book about celebrating nature.
As per the author, everyone is a protector, guardian, and seeker of nature.

Wild Child encourages children to observe and engage with nature. The book chapters are about the wildlife you can watch from your window, in the garden, in the woods, in a river and open country. At the end of each chapter is an activity related to nature. The illustrations in this book are different, making it feel almost like a journal. There are real-life images of birds, bugs, and other creatures. The author also captures a time capsule of what happens when he looks at nature, followed by scientific facts about wildlife and an activity.

The dark illustrations of people, while in contrast, also feel unrefined and make it the page's focus. There should have been a few observation pages at the end of each chapter for children to note their findings.

Wild Child is a must-have book in every home and classroom to spark curiosity about nature and remind us of our responsibility to protect it.

Such a unique and cool mix of almost poetry-like descriptions of nature and the awe of it, facts about all kinds of different things you'll find during your exploration, and step-by-step DIY projects to do to improve upon it. The illustrations and general style of the layout -- everything from colors to font choices -- are right up my alley. Just a really cool source and guide for nature loving kids everywhere (and their adults).

Thanks to NetGalley for access to this advance copy for my honest review.

Wild Child is a great introductory book about nature discovery for children. The book has both illustrations and photographs. These are seamlessly integrated along with various font types, labels, and charts to create a scrapbook or nature journal feeling. This book has five chapters: Windows to See the World Through…, The Garden, The Woods, Open Country, and The River. Each chapter teaches the child about the topic and includes an activity.

I wish the book was slightly longer to cover other ecosystems such as deserts and mountains. This book would have been highly relevant when we lived in Virginia but it is less so now that we are living in Nevada.

First off, I adored the illustrations in this book. Second, there was so much information packed into this little book and it left me yearning for even more since it was so beautifully presented.
Last point, the activities were simple enough with instructions and materials that I can actually see my children and I completing all of them in the near future.
Overall it was a delightful balance between imagery, flowery prose, scientific info, easy activities, and the spirit of exploration. I would buy this book for my family in a heartbeat and recommend it to others as well. I could see this in school and home libraries alike.

Goodness this book is beautiful. This is a perfect book for my entire family. The activities are wonderful. The images are worthy of being displayed on a walk. I look forward to purchasing this for our family.

First things first, Wild Child is an absolutely beautiful book. The illustrations are visually stunning and the text is sweetly poetic.

The book is divided into five sections, with each section focusing on one type of natural landscape (garden, forest, river…). Each section has interesting facts on animals and/or plant life, along with an associated creative project or activity. The activities remain simple and most of the required materials can be found around the house, which I appreciate.

I read Wild Child with my two outdoor-loving kids (aged 8 and 11), and while they found the illustrations exciting and the information interesting, they both said that they wished there were more activities included in the book. There are only five activities in all, and the activities that are included were already familiar to them, which was disappointing.

I think this book would be best suited to children who haven’t previously had much opportunity to explore the natural world. And perhaps that is the authors’ ultimate goal - to encourage young people who might otherwise stay indoors to reconnect with the outdoors. Unfortunately, there just isn’t anything significantly new for an already “wild” child.

I wish I could give Wild Child 5 stars for presentation and layout alone, but the activities are too few to be of real use to my children. Lovely idea though, and I will keep the title in mind for possible gifting in the future. This would indeed be a lovely present for children (and parents!) who need a bit of encouragement to step outside and observe the natural world around them.

This book is a work of art! Beautiful illustrations, collages, and handwritten text accompany printed text on a range of topics. From window-gazing to exploring the great wide open, this book provides inspiration and education for even the youngest kids to grow curious about the natural world and want to explore.

There are poetic invitations to different places to explore (garden, woods, river, open country), fun activities for kids to do (like making a bird feeder or journey stick), and lots of information and factoids about the various animals you may observe. I do wonder how much of this information is regional. Also, I was gifted a digital copy but I think a physical book is the way to go for kids to get the most out of this. The love of the natural world is abundant in these pages, and I highly recommend this book for anyone wanting to connect more with the world outside their door.

Thank you to The Experiment and NetGalley for gifting me with an ARC to review! My family enjoyed it.

There’s a lot to really like about this nature book written by a young naturalist. There are sections on different elements of nature and great activities. There are lots of interesting facts and a big focus on protecting nature. I really strongly disliked the illustration style, though, which seemed so ironically unnatural. It’s like someone went wild playing on Procreate or another drawing and editing app.

I read a temporary digital arc of this book via NetGalley.

-This is one I plan to buy when it’s published. I loved the art work and the way it broke up the different aspects of nature into areas such as trees, collective nouns for birds, river life, etc. It was full of facts as well as things to exolore on nature adventures.

One program that our library has been looking forward to trying is focused on nature diaries. Wild Child by Dara McAnulty is a perfect example of a nature diary for a young reader -- the art style and subjects are very accessible and beautifully laid out, and McAnulty uses text and pictures to show how facts and personal beliefs overlap and mesh to create a beautiful thought. Will definitely purchase and am excited to use this book as an example of how to take inspiration from nature.

What a beautiful book for young children and their parents! Full of lovely passages to read out loud, and educational sections showing various new things (eg. Male and female birds, different groupings of birds, how to make a bird feeder in the first section)

The illustrations are beautiful!

As an unschooling parent, I would have loved this book when my kids were a bit younger. I will definitely recommend it in my homeschooling groups.

Thank you, The Experiment Publishing, for the advance reading copy.

I am totally mesmerised holding my eARC copy of this book. I don’t know what will happen if I actually get to read the physical copy of this book! It’s so beautiful and dreamlike perfect!

Five short chapters with amazing facts alternating with beautiful prose on birds/bugs and a few animals, their homes and easy to follow interactive activities make the main contents. This book is so worth it. Do check it out. The art inspiration is amazing.

What a gorgeous and unique book for budding naturalists! It's filled with stunning illustrations, information about nature, and fun activities. I love the uniqueness of the layout and the content. I would recommend this for children in early elementary school. This would make an excellent and inspiring gift!