Field Guides and Friends
Book Friends, Field Guides, Fireflies!
Oh my! Who is this cute little person in my book? She fluttered out like a dried leaf or a flower when I flipped through my childhood copy of Roger Tory Peterson’s A Field Guide to Western Birds. Her name is Jennie. I know this because I wrote it on the back side of her. (And because I’m from a generation of Jennifers, so it was a likely assumption). She was originally cut out of a Sears or a JC Penny catalog, one of many low-budget paper dolls. She’s also a survivor of time. Jennie has been faithfully serving as bookmark for over forty years, preserved in the Peterson guide.
I recently rediscovered Jennie, and my old copy of this field guide, on a trip to Seattle last month. The book had been living all these years in one of my mother’s bookshelves. When I spotted it, I grabbed it and practically hugged it. It felt like reuniting with an old friend.
This copy had in fact been gifted to me by my childhood bestie. She inscribed it for me in laborious cursive, back in 1979! I was probably too young to use it as an actual bird guide back then. But I remember feeling so important just owning this thick book packed with information. It occupied a special place on my shelf. My friend’s family were naturalists who lived out in the country. I felt more connected to them because they too owned this book, and they seemed to know so much about the world around us.
I remember tracing birds and studying the color plates as a very young child. I don’t think I used it to identify many birds, other than common yard visitors. But the ripples on the pages reminded me that at some point, in later childhood or even my early teens, I did take that book outside. I remembered it went with me one year to summer camp, as well as on hikes, and to our family’s cabin in the woods.
I never wrote in the field guide. Books were something I took great care of. I didn’t even dog ear pages. That’s probably how Jennie got her job as a bookmark! Seeing her in the Phalaropes section on page 91 made me remember that she was an old friend, too, and that I’d been curious about people at an early age in the same way I was curious about birds and other animals.
(By the way, I don’t think I ever identified a phalarope back then, so I’m not exactly sure how she found her way to that page!)
I brought this book home from Seattle, where it now occupies a special place on my shelf, even though I use a different guide to identify Eastern birds. I mostly use birding apps, like eBird and Merlin, but there’s something so satisfying about seeing these rippled field guide pages, and the mysteries of the bird world they still contain.
What books have felt like old friends to you? Have you ever reconnected with an old book friend?
The Owl Prowl Mystery news!
Owl Prowl received a wonderful review from BookLife Reviews, where it is also an Editor’s Pick! The review can be read online here, and will appear in the July 8 print edition of Publisher’s Weekly. I’m especially pleased that the reviewer picked up on the ADHD storyline in the book and the importance of nuanced representation.
Lesa’s Book Critiques, a wonderful resource for mystery readers, included Owl Prowl on its list of fifteen recommended books releasing in August. I’m thrilled to see Owl Prowl on that list, as the only juvenile fiction title, among writers like esteemed mystery author Ann Cleeves! (!!!) I just love Lesa’s reading recommendations, and have now added every adult title on her August list to my teetering “to read” pile. Whew!
August 13 is publication day! I have some online events planned for August (podcast interviews, guest posts, and more); info and links will come in the next newsletter. I’ll be doing in-person events in bookstores and schools in the fall, since August can be a quiet time for bookstore events. Next months’s newsletter will list my in-person events; you can also check the Events page on my website. More will be added soon!
My launch party will be September 10 at Silver Unicorn in Acton, 7 pm, in conversation with my friend, fellow backyard detective, and award-winning children’s book author Elaine Dimopoulos, author of The Perilous Performance at Milkweed Meadow and The Remarkable Rescue at Milkweed Meadow. If you’re planning to attend, you can pre-order your copy of The Owl Prowl Mystery at the Silver Unicorn and enter to win a giveaway of some wonderful nature-related books by other authors, a Backyard Rangers field journal, an eco-friendly owl prowl tote bag (you know you want one), and a few other delightful surprises! If you are not local but wish to order a signed copy to be sent out on publication day, just let them know; they are happy to ship!
If you’re an educator interested in a book event this fall, I still have some openings in my schedule, though they are starting to fill up. You can view my school visit menu and workshop topics here, and fill out my author event interest form here!
Creature Conserve Mentorship Program Opening Soon
An organization that has been pivotal for me in my shift to writing eco-mysteries and nature-themed essays is Creature Conserve. Creature Conserve connects artists, writers, and scientists who collaborate on conservation projects. I was a mentee in their program three years ago, and served as a mentor the past two years. I participate in a conservation-focused writers’ group with this organization (where I’m now working on Backyard Rangers Book 3) and I continue to take professional development workshops online with them to increase my understanding of science. This group has helped me learn how to write more responsibly and confidently about wildlife and conservation concerns. Though the founder (Dr. Lucy Spelman) and some of the administrative team are based in Rhode Island, at RISD, the group is truly international in its scope. Workshops and events are held mostly online at different times to accommodate the wide range of time zones of the participants.
Are you a writer, artist or scientist looking for collaboration and community in the art + science conservation space? Creature Conserve is about to launch this year’s mentorship program, kicking off with a free 2-day mentorship workshop on August 4 and August 11 for interested participants. More information and a registration link can be found here! You can also attend a free Q&A session on July 15 at 9 am ET, or at 9 pm ET, to get an overview of the program and ask any questions. Sign up for the Zoom link here!
This month’s yard visitors
If you’ve been following my ongoing efforts to restore a patch of milkweed that I erroneously ripped from my yard years ago, you’ll be pleased to hear it’s making a comeback. I’ve added both common and swamp milkweed to an area bordering woods, and removed some tall invasives that were gobbling up land and light. Now many of these milkweed plants are growing tall and blooming. No monarchs are hanging out (yet?), but other butterflies have come by to check them out, as well as various moths, beetles, and other insects. I’m as happy as a kid with a thriving lemonade stand!
Other visitors to my yard this season include a bumper crop of dragonflies. Sometimes the air is thick with them. They watch me water my herb garden. They perch on my hydrangeas. (The hydrangeas this year are incredible, right??) Most importantly, they probably vacuum up a lot of our mosquitoes. We stopped using mosquito fogging services — even the supposedly organic / herbal types — and I’m actually noticing FEWER mosquitoes outside our house this year. I’m very grateful to my dragonflies for keeping the population down.
My favorite summer visitor: FIREFLIES! They’ve been putting on shows almost every evening, in the yard and into the woods behind us. There are likely weather factors in play, but their proliferation in my yard also tells me my ecosystem is pretty healthy, and the lack of chemicals in my lawn (which has been mostly converted to clover) could have something to do with it. Just for fun, I’ve reposted my essay “Counting Fireflies” in my Substack archives, if you want to know more about my firefly adventures and community science efforts to track them. This essay appeared last year as part of book-based interactive installation in an art exhibit curated by Creature Conserve, in partnership with Swale House (on Governor’s Island in NYC), and the Urban Soils Institute. Since the exhibit has ended, I thought I would make the essay available here.
Fireflies are pretty hard to capture with an aging iPhone, but here’s my humble attempt at a video. Look carefully and you’ll see the little flashes of light everywhere. They make me think of a search party in the woods, as they try to communicate with each other. What are they saying?
When I was very young, the Red Necked Phalarope was at the top of my list of birds I wanted to see, so that would have been my reason for bookmarking the phalarope page! I eventually saw a red Necked Phalarope on a small island off Shetland a few years ago, what a wonderful bird, well worth waiting for.