Awards

Book Reviews

This delightfully entertaining book for children ages 6 to 12 is an all-you-need-to-know compendium of lake and pond life. The facts fly fast and furious in segmented boxes on each page, and kids will gladly gobble up the information if they’re not too enthralled by the gorgeous artwork. Information is presented as a collection of clippings, letters, and informational blurbs collected by the character Planet Scout Klint, who records his observations from February to January. The text includes reports from Klint’s fellow Planet Scouts and the author, Kristin Joy Pratt-Serafini, who also illustrates each page with educational borders and multi-layered depictions of birds, bugs, fish, and plant life. The book presents the creatures that abound in North American lakes and ponds, including salamanders, the great blue heron, wood frogs, fishing spiders, pond crayfish, beavers, common loons, turtles, and many others. This fun, colorful, and joyful book will inspire children to investigate lakes, ponds, and other natural areas.

Its hard to imagine a parent or child who would pick up this book and not want to take it home (or out to the pond!) for repeated readings; each page is so chock-full of visually stimulating information that one reading is not enough. Young pre-readers also will delight in the colorful fun depicted on each page, be it o ducks, dragonflies, or Klint himself peeking out from under a water lily after capsizing his grandmother’s canoe in the lake. Pratt-Serafini wrote and illustrated three previous books in her teens – A Walk in the Rainforest, A Swim Through the Sea, and A Fly in the Sky – and her sense of youth remains undiminished by college graduation and marriage. With her obvious love of nature and fine eye for detail, Pratt-Serafini serves youth sumptuously well with Salamander Rain.

– New Age Retailer – September 2001

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This book takes the reader through a year of experiences and observations as recorded by a Wetland Patrol Planet Scout team member. Each double-page spread includes hand-printed notes on the amphibians, birds, insects, plants, and animals that inhabit a local pond. Each entry gives facts and statistics on one organism, plus notes, sidebars, blurbs, newspaper clippings, and letters about related species that circle the pages in striking watercolor drawings. A teacher’s guide is available. Good factual information about water environments, but the often busy-looking format may be difficult for students to process, and there’s no index or table of contents to aid further research.

– Library Talk – Anne Hartle(November/December 2001)

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In many classrooms, journaling is a valued skill and a component of an integrated curriculum. This NSTA/CBC Outstanding Science Trade Book uses bold illustrations, notes, maps, clips from news articles, and fun tidbits to provide a brilliant model for students’ journaling work.

The story joyfully describes major seasonal changes that occur in a temperate pond community. It’s an ideal way to show students how they might begin their own journal describing a familiar natural area in their own community. Whether it is read aloud to introduce a unit or used as enrichment, it will remain a classroom favorite.

– NSTA Recommends (National Science Teachers Assoc.) (June 2010)

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Salamander Rain: A Lake & Pond Journal is one of a series of nature books written in the style of a child’s diary. From amphibians to birds, crustaceans to insects, Kristin Joy Pratt-Serafini’s brightly detailed watercolor illustrations highlight a variety of animals discovered by a boy and his sister as they explore the ponds and lakes around their home. Spotted salamanders, with yellow and orange dotted markings are charmingly clownish “scrambling over twigs, rocks, and each other” to pools and ponds where they’ll raise their young. A heron, with its “long, slinky neck like a snake” and “skinny legs like broom handles,” appears admirably intent as it hunts for lunch. Boxes with species descriptions and other fun facts answer questions that the boy raises in his journal, and a list of internet sites and nature books at the end provide additional resources for youths interested in learning more about freshwater habitats. But it’s the childlike wonder conveyed by Pratt-Serafini’s clever narration that will make kids antsy – and parents nostalgic – for a watery romp outside.

– Audubon – Julie Leibach (July/August 2007)