Field Guides & Nature Handbooks

The children and nature movement is fueled by this fundamental idea: the child in nature is an endangered species, and the health of children and the health of the Earth are inseparable." —Richard Louv

A boy is running through the woods, his bare feet kicking up dust on the beaten dirt path. In the concrete city the heat is oppressive, but here it is cool and quiet as he slides to a stop in the shade of a tall pine tree. He reaches into his back pocket and pulls out a field guide. Glancing at the bird's nest above, he thumbs through the pages. Is that a finch nest? He makes a mental note to return tomorrow and check its progress.

Just one of the benefits of a field guide over a phone is that it doesn't run out of battery, doesn't need wifi, and is much less distracting. If you want your child to be out in nature, exploring and enjoying all that it has to offer, get them a field guide as a starting point for getting to know the world that God made.

Besides a handful of miscellaneous field guides, we intentionally carry three specific publishers. The Audubon Field Guides come from the well-respected National Audubon Society. These typically have a a full color photograph section in the front and the text-only field guide section in the back. This series is limited to about 20 titles, and are helpful to a broad audience, so we carry most of them. The Peterson field guides, famous for their patternistic identification system, typically have illustrations interspersed inside the book. There are a LOT of Peterson Guides, and they are often very specific, so while we only carry the First Guides (geared toward 1st-4th grade naturalists) and a few of their coloring books, we are more than happy to order full-fledged guides as well. For our local customers, the Timber Press field guides are amazing, featuring insects, animals, flowers, trees and mushrooms of the Pacific Northwest.

Review by Lauren Shearer
Lauren Shearer writes words for fun and profit. She also makes films, but everyone knows you can't make a profit doing that. Her other hobby is consistently volunteering way too much of her time. You can read more of her reviews here.
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8 Items found Print
Active Filters: Flexiback, In-Stock Books & Materials
Birds of the Pacific Northwest
by John Shewey & Tim Blount, edited by Hendrik Herlyn
from Timber Press, Inc.
for 5th-Adult
in Field Guides: Birds (Location: NAT-FG01)
$29.99 $18.00 (1 in stock)
Birds of the Puget Sound Region
by Dennis Paulson
from R. W. Morse Company
for 3rd-Adult
in Field Guides & Nature Handbooks (Location: NAT-FG07)
$9.00 (1 in stock)
Kaufman Field Guide to Insects of North America
by Eric R. Eaton & Kenn Kaufman
from Houghton Mifflin
for 8th-Adult
in Field Guides: Insects (Location: NAT-FG04)
$25.00 $14.00 (1 in stock)
Mushrooms of the Pacific Northwest
by Joe Ammirati, Steve Trudell
1st edition from Timber Press, Inc.
for 7th-12th grade
in Field Guides & Nature Handbooks (Location: NAT-FG07)
$29.99
National Audubon Society Field Guide to North American Fishes, Whales & Dolphins
from Alfred A. Knopf, Inc.
for 4th-Adult
in Field Guides: Fish & Water Life (Location: NAT-FG02)
$12.00 (1 in stock)
National Audubon Society Field Guide to North American Mushrooms
by Gary H. Lincoff
from Alfred A. Knopf, Inc.
for 4th-Adult
in Field Guides & Nature Handbooks (Location: NAT-FG07)
$26.00
National Audubon Society Field Guide to the Pacific Northwest
National Audubon Society Field Guide
by Peter Alden & Dennis Paulson
from Alfred A. Knopf, Inc.
for 9th-Adult
in Field Guides & Nature Handbooks (Location: NAT-FG07)
$27.95
National Audubon Society First Field Guide: Rocks and Minerals
by Edward Ricciuti and Margaret W. Carruthers
from Scholastic Inc.
for 4th-6th grade
in Field Guides & Nature Handbooks (Location: NAT-FG07)
$6.00 (1 in stock)