A Field Guide to Winter Play and Learn in Nature

Gabby Dawnay, Dorien Brouwers

Even in winter weather, children can still explore the outdoors in this book inspired by the Forest School movement that teaches young children how to engage with nature from season to season.

A Field Guide to Winter is a pocket-sized introduction to the winter season. Building on children’s natural curiosity about the world around them, this book aims to establish a connection with nature at an early age that will go on to last a lifetime.

Track paw prints through the snow, make your own woodland wind chimes, identify evergreen trees, and write a bedtime story for a sleepy bear. Discover how snowflakes form and why some animals hibernate in winter.

This book features lyrical poems, hands-on crafts and activities, scientific facts, and identifier pages to help children find different animals and plants. Whether a child’s access to nature is in the form of an urban park, a private garden, a field, or a forest, there is so much to discover and experience.

Reviews

A lovely series of field guides that encourage an appreciation for and reverence of nature while including valuable information and fun activities for kids. Dawnay presents two interactive volumes filled with poetry, sidebars, prompts, and infographics that will inspire kids to use all of their senses to explore the many factors that make each season special… The painterly illustrations truly set these titles apart. Brouwers uses vivid colors to depict the awe-inducing markers of each season.

— School Library Journal

Contributors

Gabby Dawnay

Author

Gabby Dawnay is a writer and poet. She is a regular contributor to OKIDO magazine and a scriptwriter for children’s television. Follow her on Instagram @gabdaw38.

Dorien Brouwers

Illustrated By

Dorien Brouwers is an award-winning illustrator and author from the Netherlands. Based in the UK, she won the Cross Category Award in the 2022 AOI World Illustration Awards, a Goldin the Moonbeam Children’s Book Awards, and was shortlisted for the Bologna Children’s Book Fair 55th Illustrator’s Exhibition. Follow her on Instagram @dorienillustrator.