This is a very attractive book, chock full of simple, understandable artwork and readable text. It's also almost a master class on nature illustration.
Julia Rothman gives us line drawings that explain birds, animals, plants, water cycles, and much more, and colors them just enought to make them even clearer. The pages are full, but never crowded. Short paragraphs explain the drawings and diagrams at an elementary level, but in a way that interested this very old adult. ( )

El campo está de moda. Y es normal. Las ciudades cada vez nos exigen más y nos ofrecen menos, y sus ritmos y obligaciones nos resultan más insostenibles. De modo que, tanto si estás pensando en abandonar la ciudad como si te apetece traerte un trocito del campo a casa, y comenzar a cambiar desde allí las cosas, éste es tu libro. Y, además, no podría ser más bonito.

Julia Rothman, una de las más reconocidas ilustradoras norteamericanas ha creado una bellísima guía visual sobre la vida en el campo. En ella aprenderás todo lo que necesitas saber para llevar una existencia alejada del asfalto, pero también descubrirás un sinfín de curiosidades, anécdotas y hasta recetas para disfrutar de la sabiduría y los placeres de la vida rural.

This book is superficial both when it comes to art and content (text), and a hodge-podge of various tidbits of information, some of which is grossly incorrect. As a science book it is rather worthless. As a book to inspire people (adults and children) to learn more about nature, maybe? The information is so fragmentary and random that you might get some dinner conversation topics out of it, but as a learning tool, not so much. ( )

It's kind of difficult to classify this book, and even harder to determine its intended audience. It's a nature book, that claims to cover the anatomy of natural things (if the title didn't make that clear) but it is more of an art book than anything. The author hand-painted every image in the book, and the information that accompanies her art is...rudimentary, at best. It kind of reminds me of an elementary-age science book in that regard.

I personally found this in my local library's science nonfiction section, but it could easily be in the children's area, or the art section, and not feel out of place at all. That is probably the biggest issue for me, considering where I picked it up and what the title is, I was expecting a bit more scientific depth. That's not the book's fault, really...or perhaps it is, simply because it doesn't fit cleanly into one category or another, leaving it an awkward and gray middle-area. Which is exactly how I'm rating it. ( )

574