The book contains a little bit of everything--plant anatomy, ecology, ethnobotany, It's written on the layperson level, which will make it popular. Though it is by no means a comprehensive guide to wildflowers (only some examples are used), it might be a fun gift for a young person or maybe someone who's just starting to learn about the outdoors.

The beautiful cover of this little book promised lots of colorful drawings. When I first looked inside and saw the single color artwork, I was disappointed. But, as I browsed the book, it grew on me (no pun intended!) It allowed for adequate demonstration of details and will undoubtedly keep the price reasonable. That said, it would truly be stunning if it could be done in full color throughout.

As a retired Biology/Botany/Horticulture professor, I found most of the book to be well done and accurate. But...there is a significant error in the "naming" chapter that continues to be perpetuated by many who are attempting to keep scientific details from discouraging the lay reader. The "species" is BOTH names (genus + specific epithet). When we speak of a species, for instance, we don't just say that the sunflower species is "giganteus." There are lots of organisms that have "giganteus" as the specific epithet, so that's not enough to tell us what we're looking at. However, Helianthus giganteus describes a particular species of plant that is unlike any other with the "giganteus" specific epithet. Sorry to be picky, but this error is really something that should not be perpetuated for the sake of simplicity.

“The prairie thrummed with energy, thick with humming bees and trilling birds. The growing season had reached a crescendo, each plant and creature playing at full volume in the summer symphony.”

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher! This is a non-fiction book about how to identify flowers in the wild, written by a Master Naturalist. It had lots of great information, and as someone who collects books about gardening, flora identification, and field guides, I can say this book genuinely had lots of information that I did not already know and found really interesting.

A room for improvement would be the illustrations. Using color block style illustrations, rather than photographs or even a more detailed illustration in keeping with the book cover, isn’t very helpful in a book about memorizing plant identification. It makes it more of a cute gift book, rather than an actual pocket field guide.

Overall, it would be a cute book on a bookshelf for someone who loves collecting books about nature.

I received this DRC from NetGalley.

3.5 stars. There was some good general info about flowers/plants and words that you could use to describe them. Info about which ones are edible is included. Different regions of the US get their own page with a few specific flowers and places to see them. I think where it falls a bit short is in listing the specific flowers. The art is cute, but when you're talking about identification, there should be more accurate depictions for comparison- or at least something to make the size of the plants clear. I just think if you're taking a pocket guide with you to help identify flowers, it would be more helpful to have one that focuses on listing more flowers and their specifics. The other stuff, you should just read beforehand.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with this book in exchange for my review! All opinions are my own.

If you enjoy flowers and nature, you will enjoy this book. Even if you are new to learning about flowers and want to educate self more, this is also a good book. I really enjoyed looking at the pretty flowers and learning about flowers I didn't know much about previously.

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This is the first year I am attempting a cut flower garden with wildflowers and I already know this is going to be a fabulous resource!

This is a beautifully written, informational and whimsical guide to flower finding that any aspiring gardener or well versed gardener would love to have in their collection.

I really loved the illustrations in the pocket guide and how each flower had the name, appearance, location, habitat and blooming season. As someone who is truly trying to just start and locate wildflowers, this is a true gem.

“I must have flowers, always, and always.” - Claude Monet

As someone who wants to learn more about the flower species around me and understand the best approach to growing my own cut flowers, this Pocket Nature was the perfect guide to help me with tips and tricks to appropriately identify flowers.

The guide was incredibly artful , intentional and I loved the light, anecdotal approach that helped apply real life identifiers to scientific information.

I also learned a TON of new wildflower species (the whimsical names were my favorite — sneezeweed and fairy hat?!) and I really enjoyed the illustrations.

This guide encompassed everything that I would want in an educational and informative book. The mindfulness practices were thoughtful, identifying specific destinations encouraged me to research them for potential trips, “what flowers can teach us” gave me a lot of pause for inspiration, and I now know what to look for this blooming season in the Northeast that I might not have been able to identify before.

PS: I would hang these illustrations on my wall, especially the one on the last page 😍

I loved the concept of this book, and the writing did not disappoint. Inspirational ideas, mindfulness suggestions, fun details included, all you could want in a pocket guide. Except actual photos to identify wildflowers.

I will not be using sketches to identify wildflowers, although they were beautiful and nicely drawn.