Welcome to Nature Book Club! Here we will share what our book club is reading each month!

January 2023: Winter Adaptations

In January, our Nature Book Club members explored books themed around winter adaptations! The following is the book list presented during this month's book club:

• Life in the Cold: An Introduction to Winter Ecology. By Peter J. Marchand, illustrations by Libby Walker.
  A popular science text book on everything winter, including the physics of snow, plant and animal adaptations such as for example hording or spreading food, with chapters on northern cervids (deer, elk, moose, and caribou); semiaquatic mammals (beaver, otter, mink, and muskrat); and gallinaceous birds (grouse and ptarmigan) ... read more

• The Ecology of Insect Overwintering. By S.R. Leather, K.F.A. Walters and J.S. Bale.
  Insect overwintering is a fascinating process involving many physiological, epidemiological, biochemical and behavioral changes. The study of the overwintering process can offer an insight into the development of insects, as well as help us predict the patterns of disease epidemic and crop destruction caused by some species. This book provides a comprehensive account of the various forms of insect overwintering and highlights important areas of economic interest ... read more

• Hiders Seekers Finders Keepers: How Animals Adapt in Winter. By Jessica Kulekjian, illustrations by Salini Perera.
  A poetic and informative exploration of the many ways animals face the challenges of winter ... read more

• Summertime Sleepers: Animals That Estivate. By Melissa Stewart, illustrations by Sarah S. Brannen.
  A children’s book about animals that estivate--a prolonged sleep during hot or dry periods … whether it's because warm weather threatens food supply or to avoid increased body temperatures. From the ladybug to the salamander, from the lungfish to the desert hedgehog, twelve estivating animals and their habits ... read more

• Winter Sleep: A Hibernation Story. By Sean Taylor, Alex Morss, Cinyee Chiu.
  In this cozy bedtime story, follow a child and his grandma through a winter landscape to explore how the Earth goes to sleep for winter. Spot the sleeping animals as the tale unfolds, then learn about their hibernation habits from the information pages at the end ... read more

• Aiviq: Life With Walruses. By Paul Souders.
  ‘Aiviq: Life with Walruses’ features stunning wildlife photography by acclaimed photographer Paul Souders accompanied by first-hand accounts from people living alongside this enormous Atlantic sea mammal ... read more

• A Long Winter's Nap: Brumation, Diapause, Hibernation & Torpor of the Northeastern Woodlands. By Sarah Roman.
  A children’s book about the many different ways animals cope with winter. A mix of rhymes, natural history in text boxes and fun facts about upstate New York ecosystems with a glossary at the end ... read more

Other books and resources that were mentioned during book club this month:

• Arctic Shrews. By Joy Frisch-Schmoll and Gail Saunders-Smith. Part of a six-book kids' series on Ice Age Animals.
  An ice age survivor, arctic shrews are tiny insect eaters that thrive in the cold. Awesome illustrations accompany carefully leveled text about food, habitat, life cycle, and threats, bringing arctic shrews to life like never before ... read more

• How Do Birds Survive The Winter? By Bernd Heinrich, illustrations by Megan Bishop. Article in the Cornell Lab of Ornithology's All About Birds online guide to birds and birdwatching
  It seems logical that most birds flee the northern regions to overwinter somewhere warmer, such as the tropics. Their feat of leaving their homes, navigating and negotiating often stupendous distances twice a year, indicates their great necessity of avoiding the alternative—of staying and enduring howling snowstorms and subzero temperatures ... read more

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