Guest Author - Diana Pederson

Our Christian families spread out across the country at vacation time. Perhaps your children go off to Bible camps. If you happen to be near the Great Smoky Mountains National Park or anywhere in North America, the following field guides will be worthwhile investing in.

Birds of Shenandoah National Park, Blue Ridge Parkway, and Great Smoky Mountains National Park: A Field Guide, written by Ernest Preston Edwards and published by McDonald & Woodward Publishing Company in 2006 is a small-volume that would fit easily in your backpack or the glove compartment of your vehicle.

Since so many field guides are similar in layout, I looked for some unique features that make this book more valuable than other field guides. I found two:

1. There are three divisions. These are: Water Birds, Land Birds, and Birds that are not Common in the Area. This is very helpful since it gives me a particular book section to look in. I dislike having to figure out what bird family a bird might belong to before I can look up information on it. This field guide solves that problem quite easily.
   
2. The introduction provides maps of the region covered, a list of terms, and even a picture of the parts of a bird so you have an easier time looking for the identifying features for a specific bird.
   

I enjoyed the maps, colored pictures, other information provided in this book. If I lived in the Virginias or just vacationed there, I would want to own this book. The descriptions are short and to the point. You won’t have to weed through detailed explanations involving evolution anywhere in this book.

A Guide to Common Freshwater Invertebrates of North America, written by J. Reese Voshell, Jr., and published by McDonald & Woodward Publishing Company in 2002, is a major work on the freshwater invertebrates. It is too big to carry in your back pocket or perhaps even a backpack. If your family goes camping on vacations, or visits our many State and National parks, you will want this volume.

I well remember spending hours floating on an inner-tube tied to a dock so I could study the life on the bottom of the lake we visited as a family every summer. I loved finding something interesting, whether it was an insect, or a mussel shell, on the bottom. These were brought to the dock and I dug out my Golden Guide books. How I wish this book had been available 40+ years ago.

The book is divided into 3 sections. The first section provides an introduction including definitions, classification of these freshwater invertebrates, and an introduction to their biology and ecological importance. The author assumes that beginners are using this book and thoroughly explains what you need to know to identify one of these critters properly.

Section 2 provides colored photos of all the commonly found invertebrates along with a discussion of the distinguishing features of each species. If you don’t find enough information in section 2, the next section provides a significant amount of information on each of the species covered.

This book is well written, and meets the author’s stated goal quite well. It will no doubt remain on my bookshelves to be shared with the next child that asks me “what is this” for something they fished out of a lake, river, or stream. Perhaps it will help develop the same lifelong interest I’ve had in learning the names of the creatures in my world.