by Wayne Lynch
Fitzhenry & Whiteside, 2022
ISBN 9781554555888 (sc)
$26.95, 128 pp, 8 – 12
fitzhenry.ca
Self-proclaimed “critter junkie” Dr. Wayne Lynch has spent more than forty years travelling the world as a nature photographer. During that time, this western Canadian author published nearly sixty naturalist works, many for children.
His most recent effort is Wildlife of the Rockies for Kids. Divided into seven sections (mountain habitats, bears, hoofed animals, wild cats, wild dogs, small mammals, and birds), the book is lavishly illustrated with beautiful colour photographs. Each animal is described concisely in 500 words or so, accompanied by a half-dozen photos, along with fast facts—explaining size, habitat, diet, and strange-but-true tidbits—in the two additional information sidebars.
Classroom Connections: No age range is specified by the publisher, but the book certainly could be used by junior-intermediate students. Lynch offers a brief explanation of how to become a successful “wildlife detective” (learn as much as you can beforehand, be still and quiet, use binoculars, and move slowly and obliquely around the subject) at the end of the work. Teachers could have their students follow those rules for a field trip, even into urban environments like parks, searching for birds, small mammals, and insects. A class project could produce a similar work involving local or provincial wildlife.
Review by George Sheppard.
This review is featured in Canadian Teacher Magazine’s 2024 Winter issue.