Animals

Diary of the Cat Named Carrot

August 7, 2021 By Annette1 2 Comments

Disclosure: I received this complimentary product (Diary of the Cat Named Carrot) through HCI Books. Affiliate Links will be used, thank you for your support of my blog. It costs you nothing to do so, and encourages me. 🙂

You know how cats, bunnies, and dogs can have their own accounts on Instagram or Facebook? Well, there’s a cat named Carrot who has his own place on Social Media. This cat even has a book! Diary of the Cat Named Carrot! Carrot can be found on Facebook and Facebook. Pictures and the thoughts of Carrot the cat abound.

Diary of the Cat Named Carrot, details

When you get Diary of the Cat Named Carrot, you will receive a lovely hardcover tome featuring Carrot on the front cover. Carrot is an adorable orange tabby. This book features his life from shelter kitten to settled 1st year owned cat as part of a family of four. I am reviewing this 158 picto-biography for HCI Books. You will find a photo to go with every diary entry. Erin Merryn is author and photographer.

Who is Erin Merryn

Now that you caught a glimpse of this sweet book let me tell you a bit about Erin Merryn. She is an author, speaker, activist, wife and mom. Named Woman of the Year in 2012 by Glamour Magazine, she works tirelessly to keep children safe by educating them about body safety. She has also written Bailey, no Ordinary cat. Stolen innocence, Living for Today, and An Unimaginable act.

Additional Information

Carrot came from a shelter that their previous cat Bailey had come from. In his diary Carrot talks about how he and his siblings were brought to the shelter to find new homes. The author attempts to describe his story from Carrot’s point of view. It makes for a cute story, but anthropomorphising animals is something that I struggle with. 🙂 We honestly can’t know how an animal is thinking or feeling. But all that said, Diary of the Cat named Carrot is a cute and fun story that I’d happily have sit on a shelf. Such a delight it would be to adult and child alike don’t you think?

Aren’t the photos clear? Every photo is well taken with clarity to help tell the story of Carrot’s life.

I don’t know if it her children or Erin who enjoys dressing Carrot up, but he has a number of different articles to wear. Which makes him quite the fashionable cat.

Carrot is involved in every aspect of his family’s life, from holidays to birthdays and days inbetween. A tolerant well-behaved tabby cat. 🙂

Add Diary of the Cat Named Carrot to your shelves?

The perfect gift for any cat lover, Diary of the Cat Named Carrot would be welcome I think is most homes. It tells a a heartwarming story of a rescue cat. Encourages people to spay their cats, and shows how a cat can be a complete part of family life.

From a homeschooling perspective, study cats, research the work of shelters, understanding cat lives etc.

The Book of Tiny Creatures

July 28, 2021 By Annette1 2 Comments

Disclosure: I received this complimentary product (The Book of Tiny Creatures) through Raincoast Books. Affiliate Links will be used, thank you for your support of my blog, costs you nothing to do so. 🙂

When I saw this book in my pile of book to review from Raincoast I was so delighted. My lad would have loved The Book of Tiny Creatures as a child. I hope that I can find just the right child to gift this to as I know it will bring delight to any child fascinated by the tiny creatures around us.

There are SO many tiny creatures around us, worms, beetles, snails, flying, crawling, slithering, everywhere living teeny tiny critters invading our world. Let’s welcome them shall we? 🙂 Seriously!

Learning about Tiny Creatures

The Book of Tiny Creatures was produced by Princeton Architectural Press. Instructively written by Nathalie Tordjman and realistically illustrated by Julien Norwood and Emmanuelle Tchoukriel. 72 pages encased in a hardcover binding, written for youth 5-9 years old. Reviewed for Raincoast Books.

Digging Deeper

You will find five overall sections, each with five subsections.

Who are the Tiny Creatures?
Life in the sky
Close to the Ground
In the Water
Incredible Creatures

You’ll find oodles of pictures that are so intricately drawn it’s delightful to see. Good descriptions of select creatures as well. Plus information pages to round out ideas and get children thinking.

Quiz pages in each section. Not all the answers are given (at least not that I saw quickly), which allows you to do some research, and find more questions to ask (and answer) about these amazing critters of the world. Finding books that encourage excellent questions are always a boon to me. Feeding curiousity in others makes my heart smile, does it do the same to yours?

Plus things to do! Build a terrarium, explore at the seashore, or create shelters in your backyard. STEM activities at their best! Learn, create, and grow! Don’t you just love STEM activities? Such an excellent way to put all the knowledge you are gathering to good purpose.

I LOVe how the information is laid out and the variety of creature life featured. I would have spent more than one night pouring over the pages with my lad and so many questions would be raised.

Should The Book of Tiny Creatures be yours?

FOR SURE! If you have any interest in these little creatures of the world, get this book. If you have a child like mine who is fascinated by them and comes up with good questions, get this book so they can come up with MORE good questions. Feed interests! Help them learn and to love doing so!

The book of tiny creatures with it’s excellent illustrations and good information is a winner! Add it to your bookshelves as soon as you can! 🙂 It will be a good start to a study on insects, ocean creatures, Pollinators, pesky bugs, and more.

Chickenology

July 17, 2021 By Annette1 2 Comments

Disclosure: I received this complimentary product (Chickenology) through Raincoast Books.

Did you know that I love chickens? I think chickens are such neat birds and they come in so many colours, sizes, feather styles, and temperaments. You’ll get egg layers, meat birds, and dual purpose. Chickens that lay eggs of many colours, and chickens known for their parenting abilities. Chickenology introduces us to those birds and so much more. Come! Let’s delve into the ultimate encyclopedia of chickens!

What do you get and who produced Chickenology?

Chickenology: The ultimate encyclopedia was produced by Princeton Architectural Press. It has a completely different look and style than the other Chicken book I’ve reviewed called Backyard Chickens. The aim of Chickenology is to touch on a number of different areas with chickens from all around the world, that live for a variety of purposes. Wild and domestic chickens are featured. Written with children 5-9 years old in mind.

Five sections

Discovering the World of Chickens (11 subsections)
What’s a Chicken made of (11 subsections)
The Egg Up Close (5 subsections)
Chickens and Humans (8 subsections)
A world of Chicken Breeds (5 subsections)

73 pages that are well coloured with a good sized font for reading. This book one in the farm animals series. A wonderful hardcover that is oversized but comfortable to hold. Chickenology is written by Barabara Sandri and Francesco Giubbilini and cheerfully illustrated by Camilla Pintonato. My review copy comes from Raincoast Books.

Getting More Specific

Check out the colours and the variety in these chickens! Small chickens, large chickens, all kinds of chickens!

As you browse through the pages you’ll see the development of a chick into an adult, see how big (or small) chickens are, explore their feathers, discover different comb shapes, poultry diseases, and the many ways to cook eggs up!

Chickenology provides lots of room on their pages for illustrations, lines, and text. Nothing feels crowded and lots of colour will draw your attention. I love the details provided on most pages about different features, such as this one about a chicken feather.

What do I think of Chickenology?

Would I call Chickenology the ultimate encyclopedia of Chickens? Not really, I didn’t find all the information accurate. BUT it is a fun read, an interesting read, and I learned a few things new about chickens! AND it is a very good start!

If you are doing a project about chickens, this lovely tome by Sandri, Giubbilini and Pintonato will come in handy. Or if you just want to have fun and learn some interesting facts about chickens, you’ll enjoy it.

Did you know that chickens have played an important role throughout history being featured in stories, being used as symbols, and feeding large portions of the world’s population. I’d be curious to know more, aren’t you?

Armor & Animals

July 3, 2021 By Annette1 2 Comments

Disclosure: I received this complimentary product (Armor & Animals) through Raincoast Books.

When my lad was but a lad (he’s almost a man now!) he was FASCINATED by armor, weapons, warcraft and the like. He’s still interested, but less in the armor and weaponry and more on the planning behind the scenes which fascinates him. Anyways, one of the more interesting aspects of his fascination was learning how where people live influences how their weaponry is built. For instance, we learned of a people whose primary weapon was a club. The top of this club was shaped like a pineapple. Guess what grew around them? Pineapples. We saw this in other places of the world as well. The influence that nature and natural formations had on the design of their weapons. So when Amor & Animals arrived on my door from Raincoast Books, I was immediately intrigued.

All around us animals roam the earth. Some of these animals have obviously seen protective armour. These animals include such beasties as turtles, rhinos, snails and porcupines. Could their armour influence the armour that people make for protection and/or warfare?

You bet! Armor & Animals by Liz Yohlin Baill walks youth 5-8 year olds through 9 different animals whose protective gear influenced our own.

Learning more about Armor & Animals

Armor & Animals is a short, hard-covered book designed to answer the question, how do animals help us protect ourselves with better armor? Through 9 different animals, spanning the range from insects to mammals, children are introduced to this influence.

The book design is to lay out the question “A knight can lift the visor to look out of a helmet, just like a turtle peeks out from it’s shell”. Then it goes on to explain how that animal help to influence the design of the piece of armor.

More information about the animals and how their armor protects would have been great, as well as showing animals from the regions where the armor was designed. This is very much an introductory work, having more “meat” in it would make it even better.

Now, do I know if everything the author says is true, or if Liz Yohlin Baill is just looking for ideas to support her thesis? I don’t know? I haven’t done enough research on these specific things, but I do know that animals can influence our designs. AND I do know that a book like this would have sparked lots of questions from my lad.

The armor featured comes from the Philadelphia Museum of Art. The pieces featured range from full suits of armor to a shield, staff, helmet and gear for horses, and also some chain link mail. All the armor was of European origin.

Font and Colour

The font is a great size for sharing with a group of children, or facilitating children reading on their own. I would not expect 5 year olds to read it on their own, but 8-9 year olds should be able to. The language used is quite child-friendly.

The colour palette is fairly basic using blue, yellow and red predominately (varying shades). But what they did was feature each animal and the armor in their own colour. This makes it easy to discern when a new topic begins.

Should You Get it?

Armor & Animals is definitely worth taking a look it, it’s a great book to get the conversation started. Can we be influenced by the animals around us? How might that influence look? Can we use animals to help us without hurting them? Could a turtle really provide some answers for us?

The amazement on my son’s face when doing our research on weapons and learning how where people lived affected their weapons design. You can’t know where you might get inspiration from, and if animals can help us, why not let them?

Insects at the beach

May 31, 2021 By Annette1 11 Comments

Affiliate links will be used in this post.

Two challenges face me this week… insects (crew challenge) and the beach (online book challenge)! The question is, how do I combine these challenges? As I considered the word beach I remembered a book I read last fall called Beach Music. In that hardcover read I was introduced to the plight of sea turtles, and how they slapped mosquitos at the beach. Ergo a good combination would insects at the beach… don’t you think?

Now the insects that one finds at the beach kinda depend on where your beach is. I find more insects readily available on the beach near small lakes. Insects are somewhat less prevalent I find at the beaches from the great lakes, but if you look for them, you’ll find them. It could also be that I’m not paying as much attention as I’m usually at Lake Huron to swim and socialize, not relax and notice nature! 🙂

Insects at the beach that annoy

I know when I go to the beach at Lake Huron the sandflies irritate me! Annoying little pests that go after my ankles. A small fly, they pack a nasty bite. They seem to be worse when the weather is humid, so going to the beach when it’s just slightly chill, or there’s a wind blowing is ideal for avoiding them.

The same goes for mosquitos! A slight wind, and they stay away. And the bonus is, on somewhat windy days, the beach is way less crowded too!

Of course one can use a variety of repellants as well to hold them off. I don’t really like using repellants, particularly at the beach since it just washes off in the water and I’d rather not poison the water critters.

Insects that Delight

Water striders. I will always be fascinated by these crazy insects. They are just too cool floating on the top of the water. You won’t find them on busy beach days at Lake Huron or where the waves are coming in rough at all, but those calm glassy days…the striders will be out! But by smaller lakes and ponds you’ll find them, and in streams going along nature trails you’ll find them in abundance.

I’ve also seen water beetles at our local beach. I freely admit that I don’t know the names to all these beetles, some are water bugs, others are boatmen, some bite easily, others avoid contact at all costs it seems, but they are really neat to observe as they dart around in the water. Again, calm, quiet days are best to observe them. Sometimes I wonder where they go when the waves are rushing in.

Moths and butterflies flit about, as do dragonflies chasing after the mosquitos and sand flies. I thoroughly enjoy watching the dragonflies, they are so quick and precise in their movements. You’ll find all sizes of them, but note, not all that look like dragonflies are, some are actually damselflies. Canadian wildlife will help you tell the difference.

Over the years we have caught several as my lad was quite fascinated with them for quite some time. They don’t keep well in captivity due to their need for food, but to catch and observe and then release, works really well.

OH! I shouldn’t forget the ants. I always find ants at the beach regardless if at Lake Huron or out camping. There are so many different types of ants it’s actually quite amazing. We also find tons of small spiders as well, but they technically aren’t insects what with lacking wings and having too many legs. 🙂

Things to help in your observations

Something you might want to do is make a Pooter… it’s a device you use for catching small insects and spiders. Very simple to make. You just need a jar with a lid and some flexible tubing. Some lung power to suck the insect up and voila! A chance to closely observe insects with the equal ability to let them go free afterwards.

For larger insects like dragonflies and butterflies you’ll need a good bug net and patience. Word to the wise, avoid the kids bug nets… they fall apart so easily and really aren’t worth the money. Get a good quality one and it will last you until your children are no longer interested in insects. 🙂

In fact, if you are going to the beach to just look for insects you’ll want to bring along all your nature study tools, and even a bug collecting tent. We got a lot of use out of this collapsible one and eventually learned to make our own out of old tenting mesh and wire clothes hangers.

If you have a fascination for ants (or your children do) make a formicarium or glass ant farm to keep them in. Keep them well-fed with mealworms and honey and make sure they have water. Catching a queen means it will last far longer as ants need a leader and a job to do in order to live well.

This post is part of the blogging through the alphabet challenge as well as the online Book club.

Fellow Participants for the Online Book Club are

Ontario Wildlife in our Backyard

May 24, 2021 By Annette1 6 Comments

Oh… Ontario Wildlife… we have so many options eh? One can travel up north to see moose and bear, or down south to watch the birds mitigating in from the states at Point Pelee. I can drive down to Grand Bend in the spring to watch the snow geese come in, or head down to the local park to watch the local Canada Geese and mallards. But one of the things I love about where I live is my humungous backyard. I have the joy of watching Ontario wildlife in our backyard. I have the double joy of sharing this with my teenage son. He’s not always so delighted when he gets to see some of this nature up close and personal as he helps me transport it elsewhere….

The Unexpected

The other day my son and I were out gardening when suddenly I yelled “wow, that’s the biggest wolf spider I have ever seen!”. The lad came running over as fast as he could. He was delighted. My lad loves spiders and has kept a number of them over the years. The largest wold spider we’ve seen in the past was perhaps an inch all around, this one was big and fat and had to be almost two inches around. FAST! We wanted to save it since why kill something that is helpful outside? Ergo, the lad captured it and moved it to our woodpile. I wish I could have gotten a picture, but a fast-moving spider and a camera in my pocket isn’t a good combination.

Critters can be found everywhere if you look for them. Gardening, mowing the lawn, trimming bushes, feeding the rabbits, hanging the laundry, or just sitting under a tree. A spider can suddenly appear right in front of you… sending you skittering far away! 🙂 Or a vole can be found nibbling a discovered snack.

All you need to do is keep your eyes open, and your ears listening. Who knows what you might discover? This spring I’ve been serenaded by toads, been surprised by skittering feet on the rabbitry roof, and been delighted by the warning buzz of a bumblebee.

Now mind you, there are critters I like to see… voles, insects, toads…. LOVE having toads, frogs, water bugs, spiders… in places I am not! But there are also varmints! I don’t much care for varmints, and I’d rather not be overladen with flying pests like yellow jackets, flies, and mosquitos. It is so much fun when I clean out the rabbitry and discover insects I’ve never seen before: whiptails, and yellow centipedes that are so tiny, and jumping spiders of all sorts. I don’t want them ON me, but it’s fun to observe creation don’t you think? Even with the varmints…to see their colour, observe their movement, note curiousities about them. It’s good to really see the world around us.

Critters I’d rather not have….

This guy was very unfortunate in his life. We observed many injuries on him that were healing.

This spring we have had a number of unwanted Ontario Wildlife in our backyard. Unwanted for a variety of reasons. I really dislike some of these varmints in the rabbitry.

Rats… cause they foul EVERYTHING, such filthy beasts, and they’ll damage the rabbits.
Skunks…cause they can be stink buckets! Though last year we had a polite skunk who I didn’t mind having around. I’d announce my arrival, it would disappear under the rabbit cages until I was gone, and then come out again. This year’s batch were less-than-polite so out they went!
Opossums… scary bad damage to rabbits they can do. They usually just pass through, but if I can encourage them on their way, I am more than happy to do so.
Raccoons… HORRIBLE critters when it comes to rabbits. The damage they can do makes me so very angry. I so heartedly have learned to dislike them around rabbits because of how they damage them.
Stray cats…. stinky messy animals. Why do stray tom cats like our backyard? I DUNNO. But I don’t need them peeing on my fence posts, messing up my hay, or leaving poop in my yard. YUCK. Not real fond of half-eaten corpses laying around either. The positive thing is they do help reduce the rat population.

My son has learned how to transport most of these critters away from here. He’s had to learn what time of day is best to move them, how far away to take them, and how to get them out of the trap without negative consequences. Being able to observe them up close and note their different features has been instructional. Skunks by the by, you cover them with a tarp and keep it between you and them the WHOLE time. They don’t see you, they don’t spray you. Important life skills for a lad to learn.

This guy was the youngest of five we’ve caught this spring. The other four were older and somewhat aggressive.

Science at home

My teen was also able to help in an experiment. What will catch more rats… a live trap or a snap trap? We were curious what will draw them in quicker… Nutella, peanut butter or seeds? This led to a hypothesis, observations, and a conclusion. Biology science in real life. Nutella came out the winner! Thank you to Shawn Woods and Mousetraps Mondays! This is a trap I’d love to own someday. It will have to wait though until I can get to the States sometime.

Critters I don’t mind

The other day I was out on the porch and spotted this swarm of ants. My son, when I told him, asked me a bunch of questions about them. Was it two colonies of ants fighting? Was it a mating swarm? Where they gathered around eating something? I said I don’t know, how would I know? He proceeded to educate me on ants and all the signs of ant colonies fighting and what a mating flight would look like. We determined that they were just out for some unknown reason. The lad knows a lot about ants as he raises them and has built his own formicariums for some of them. The goal… to raise big enough colonies to sell them. 🙂

Insects too!

Every year we have a bumble bee grace our yard. She often nests in old tree stumps or well-rotten wood. This year it took me a while to spot her nest. In a place I totally didn’t expect!

I thought she was nesting in the straw bale and didn’t want to move it until I knew where she was going. Certainly, I didn’t expect her to be in an old nesting box holding extra rabbit fur. Now I won’t dump it until the fall… after I carefully go through it. I’ve never seen a bumblebee nest before. In case you are curious as I am….

More than bumblebees

We are just starting to see a variety of insects. When I was moving the compost the other day it was swarmed by hordes of yellow flies. I told my guys to stay clear as on the farm growing up I learned these things bite! They like damp smelly places and if you bug them, they’ll bite. What the name of them is? I grew up calling them stable flies but when I look up stable flies they don’t look the same. They look a lot like these flies. I did have the lad give them a good look so he learns to avoid them.

I’ve also been seeing centipedes and millipedes, and have already been catching them for our goldfish. The rollypolys are out and about as well. The other day as I was cleaning cages a small black spider spun down in front of me. Aphids are coming out. We’ve been feeding various earthworms to our garter snake.

Our Pond Brings in Critters

I’ve needed to warn the lad when he mows the lawn to mind the toads we have hopping around. We have at least six different ones and I’d hate for them to go through the mower. They catch SO many flies.

Every year we get a frog or two.

Dragonflies will start gracing our yard killing tons of flies and mosquitos, and water striders, water beetles and more. They have to be quick to avoid our ravenous goldfish.

How about you?

So you gotta tell me….. what kind of critters do you find in your backyard? When you holler WOW, what would bring your youngsters running to see? What delights you in the animals you see around your place? Or even what you’d rather not spend time thinking on! 🙂

Want to know more about supporting teens through homeschooling? Sparks Academy has put together an ebook on Homeschooling Highschool. You could also visit SchoolhouseTeachers. (affiliate link) They have a variety of unit studies, biology lessons, nature studies, chemistry and physics lessons to help our highschoolers under the world around better. Use the code outside to get a discount.

https://schoolhouseteachers.com/dap/a/?a=2815

Unstoppable: True Stories of Amazing Bionic Animals

January 13, 2021 By Annette1 2 Comments

Who would have thought that the advent of 3D printers would create unstoppable animals? Here, let me give you an example!

Would you like to know more? In Unstoppable you will meet 13 animals that haven’t let a disability stop them from living life. They’ve needed some people to help them along the way. with the advent 3D printers and bionics it means nothing slows them down now.

What do you get?

Full colour pictures fill every page of the 128 page book. You’ll meet lambs, goats, cows, puppies, birds, turtles and more. So many ways that animals can be helped! I was rather surprised myself. Imagine seeing a little guinea pig on wheels! I’ve seen dogs on wheels so I suppose I shouldn’t have been too surprised, but imagine the fidgeting you’d need to do for a wee guinea pig.

Written by Nancy Furstinger and published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. You may recall another book by Furstinger called Mercy. I am reviewing this book on behalf of Raincoast Books. 13 chapters complete with along with a note from the author, glossary, bibliography and photo credits. A page is listed with websites to learn more about the animals talked about.

Unstoppable, the details

Written for children 8-12 years old, Unstoppable: True Stories of Amazing Bionic Animals, you’ll find the text easy to read. The font was very clean and clear. It is a fairly large font that suited the size of the book excellently. It comes in kindle, trade paperback or hardcover.

I was very surprised at the types of animals represented: Cows, goats, sheep, ducks, guinea pigs,geese, rabbits, cats, turtles, elephants, guinea pigs, horses, sandhill cranes, alligators, dolphins, llamas, bald eagles and donkeys.

As a farmers daughter I rather wonder about the expense for providing bionic prosthetics for farm animals but have come to understand that some individuals turn them into pets. Pets of all shapes and sizes should be provided with good care should they not?

Just look at these really well done images! Being able to see them in use and how these different animals can now lead full lives, rather cool isn’t it?

The stories are well-written showing the need of each animal, the challenge in creating the right prosthetic and how it has impacted the animal life. Can you imagine the challenge in making a prosthetic for an alligator?

Should you get it?

I found Unstoppable: True Stories of Amazing Bionic Animals to be an absolutely fascinating book. The efforts people go to in order to help their disabled pets amazes me.

The science behind making the prosthetics intrigues me, and knowing that people can make these aids for their animals using a 3D printer surprises me. What a cost-effective way to help more animals!

If you have children with a love for animals, science, and engineering this would be an excellent book to share with them.

Not all the links posted at the close of this book worked. Be advised that some links lead to sanctuaries and rescues that twist the truth.