How to Read the Wilderness

Jam packed nature guide. It was great for an overall informative book for the entire United States. Will be great for reference at home or schools

A beautiful and unique introduction to the flora and fauna of the North America for novice and experienced nature lovers alike! The easy to understand infographics allow readers to develop a framework for understanding the natural world. Rather than long list of exhaustive details, the book synthesizes the essential information about each species and their habitat. The book also gives clear definitions of key ecological concepts (habitats, flower parts, life cycles) so readers can build on their knowledge quickly. The mammals and birds portion also guides the reader to identify mammals not just by their skulls, droppings and track patterns, and nests). I enjoyed the dichotomous keys (I can now identify oaks!), the detailed illustrations, and the breadth of topics. You will learn about trees, tidal creatures and even constellations, so everyone is sure to learn something new. The only thing that is missing are amphibians and reptiles- but those creatures are much more secretive so I understand why they were not included.

This is a really fun and informative guide to identifying plants, trees, birds, ocean life, constellations, animals and more. There are black and white drawings. Much of it is in the format of “if there’s this then turn to this page.” I learned a lot of really interesting stuff but it is not complete. For instance, there are berries and I learned some I didn’t know but then it doesn’t have basic berries you find all over like elderberries, dogwood berries, juneberries or raspberries. Likewise, it has some birds but it’s just a few. Also, the illustrations are in black and white, which makes identification difficult for some things. Many categories of things are included but others are missing like reptiles, insects and mushrooms. There’s not room for everything but I think reptiles and amphibians would have fit with the rest of the book better than constellations, for example.

Still, it’s an incredibly fun and interesting book done in a novel way. Recommended.

I read a self destroying arc for review.

How to Read the Wilderness by Nature Study Guild is an information packed book on identifying different plants and animals and even locating stars and constellations. I really enjoyed how the information is broken up by category and then by location and the simple yet beautiful illustrations are highly detailed and would be a great help in identifying the nature around you. I will be using this as a reference book for nature walks and nature studies and recommending it to the other families in my co-op. This is a wonderful reference book that all homeschoolers should have on their shelf!

While a beautiful book, and one that might provide a very basic overview of natural features of the entire United States, How To Read The Wilderness falls short in practicality.

It utilizes a very basic dichotomous key system without explaining what it is or how each set of choices relies on an arbitrary simplified dichotomy. I think the section on "Trees of the Central and Eastern United States and Canada" was where I really started questioning the purpose and functionality of this guide. There was a pretty cool and useful overview of habitats and shapes of trees, that then was followed up by ... a section on identifying Spruce? A beginner naturalist might not know whether the tree they're looking at is a spruce or some other conifer, and using this section's key, might arrive at the conclusion that the hemlock they're examining is instead a Black Spruce. This is followed by "Identifying Willows," "Identifying Deciduous Trees in Winter," and "Identifying Maples in Winter" (which, maples are deciduous trees? Did we learn how to identify them in summer? Where are the oaks? Maybe an overview of the other types of trees one might encounter in the Eastern deciduous forest?). On the other side of the coin, a more experienced naturalist will be left confused at best. I did like some of the tidbits of information sprinkled throughout, like the examples of indusium shapes, but they seemed out of place in a guide that neglected to mention how to tell basic leaf shapes apart. And this is a problem in each section. I think the creators of this guide had a broad and grand vision that was too large to fit within these covers.

Recommended for readers who want a beautiful book with a vintage aesthetic who don't mind double checking other sources to ensure they have complete and accurate information.

What an absolutely fantastic nature guide How to Read the Wilderness is!!! I have become quite obsessed with this book. There is so much to love here but what especially stood out to me is how organized and easy to read this book is. I love how it was arranged and the various topics topics it covered in an orderly way, from trees and flowers to the ocean and the night sky in their various regions of North America. The information was thorough and rich in detail without being wordy and exhausting, much of which I believe is the helpful and enjoyable diagrams and illustrations on all of the pages throughout. For this reason, I can comfortably say that this book would not only be enjoyed by adults but also elementary ages nature enthusiasts as well.

This book is honestly just so fun to flip through and I’m absolutely thrilled by it. There is so much to learn here and from cover to cover there are interesting facts. This book would make a perfect gift, coffee table book, or travel companion to pack away on your next adventure!

Many thanks to Chronicle Books and NetGalley for the gifted e-copy!

This book will educate nature lovers. There are chapters on flowers, fruits & ferns; mammals & birds; the ocean, and the night sky. Throughout there are appealing drawings, along with maps and other resources like identification keys.

Each section of this book is quite detailed. For example, the section on trees is carefully broken down by regions as, for example, trees of the southwestern desert.

This title is absolutely packed with information. Readers may want to hone in on the area where they live or a place where they plan to travel for this book to be most helpful. It then provides an excellent resource for someone who seriously wants to know more about their environment. I especially enjoyed a section on birds of my area.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Chronicle Books for this title. All opinions are my own.

Extremely educational. Tells you about all kinds of things in the wild and gives you pictures and descriptions. Has sections for trees, plans, animals, the ocean, and the stars. Would be extremely useful for people that like to hike or camp!

As an avid outdoors person with a shelf full of identification guidebooks, I was intrigued by this book that appeared to be an all-in-one guide. It covers trees, flowers, birds, mammals, oceans, and constellations, so a lot more breadth than a typical guide. To gain this breadth, they don't go into the depth of single-subject identification guidebooks. Before I get to details, I want to mention that this book discusses these areas in broad geographic regions in the United States. They provide select examples which are far from comprehensive. The illustrations are line drawings which, at least for the flowers, would be difficult to use for identification. That said, it would be a great starter book for exploring the outdoors. It covers the process of identification, what to look for to make an identification. For the section on trees and ocean, the geography and habitat are also discussed both for explaining the ecosystem and for helping to identify species. The mammal section includes animal track patterns. The lengthy constellation section includes info from a variety of cultures. Overall, I would recommend this book for newbie outdoors people looking to start learning about what they are seeing. Those familiar with traditional comprehensive guidebooks will find the selectivity frustrating for identification purposes. I can see this book being an accessible entry point for many people to begin exploring and understanding the world around them.

How to Read the Wilderness: An Illustrated Guide to the Natural Wonders of North America provides diagrams and symbols to help identify trees, flowers, fruits and ferns, mammals and birds, the ocean, and the night sky in North America. The illustrations are detailed and easy to understand. The book itself if very simply organized, so this could be utilized by students as well as adults.

Honestly, I was impressed by the organization of this book. I thought it would be more wordy. Instead the diagrams, symbols, maps, and descriptions help anyone identify different organisms, environments, and celestial objects.

Thanks Chronicle Books and Netgalley for giving the opportunity to access this ARC. Although my school library is not in North America, I will be suggesting this book to my fellow librarian friends in the US.

As a nature lover and someone who likes to be able to i.d. flora/fauna this is a nice guide. I think it would work best as a physical edition with how sections are laid out within the book. You'll be flipping through pages quite a bit.

It's very general and probably focuses on the most popular plants/animals, so this would be great for those with little to no knowledge of the outside world. I did enjoy the illustrations but they seemed a bit bare-boned especially because there are so many plants that look wildly similar that you need extreme detail to i.d. them properly so I admit I hoped for more detailed illustrations but this is purely a personal preference.

How to Read the Wilderness is a comprehensive guide to the flora and fauna of North America. There was an absolute ton of information presented in a clear and concise way. It is much like a textbook but isn't boring at all. This is useful to anyone who enjoys nature and the outdoors. I loved this book and cannot wait to own a physical copy. Thank you to NetGalley for the copy.

This was a really interesting book! I really liked how it was structured and I learned a lot about each region that was discussed. This book is centered on the United States/North America, which is understandable of course, but I think I would love to see other books like this for other regions as well. I really liked how the illustrations in the books were outlined and how they used the illustrations and aspects of them to point the reader to other similar plants - kind of like a choose your own adventure but for plants, animals, and stars! This was a really fascinating book and I am so excited to get a copy when this is published for my own reference. A great book, useful for anyone who wants to understand the natural world around them, filled with cool illustrations, awesome tips for identifying different aspects you may see, and easy to understand and find information in.

I’ve always been a nature lover. I love being outside and exploring. I am not huge into non-fiction generally, but because of the topic I decided to give this book a try. I found it very informative and I love the lay-out and simplicity of it. As someone with adhd, I can easily become bored with non-fiction and paragraph after paragraph can make my eyes cross. These pages were beautifully done, nicely labeled, and had great diagrams with pops of color (green, my fave!) not only a great read, would also make a great coffee table book! Thanks to NetGalley for this advanced readers copy!

An absolutely beautiful study guide! This is a book I will be purchasing a hard-copy of once it comes out in November! A gorgeous reference.

This book is perfect for anyone who enjoys experiencing nature and wants to learn more about the wilderness of North America. Topics are detailed, and the artwork is classic and beautiful. However, in regards to the artwork, color visuals may be more helpful with identifying plants and birds for example. I was slightly disappointed that there was not much information on reptiles and amphibians, but loved that included constellations among other topics. Overall, this was a very informative book and am excited to put some of that knowledge to use the next time I find myself immersed in nature!

Thank you to Chronicle Books and Net Galley for an advanced copy of this book.
Lovely, full of advice nature guide. I learned a lot of new information and I thought the black and white drawings. Overall, an informative book of the United States. Will be a great reference book for homeschooling.