A Walk in the Forest: (ages 3-6, hiking and nature walk children's picture book encouraging exploration, curiosity, and independent play)

by Maria Dek

Overview

"… an urgent entreaty for young people to immerse themselves in the outdoors." —STARRED Kirkus Reviews
 
"Discover the forest in all its mysterious glory with this book." —Learning Magazine
 
A charming, illustrated picture book that invites young readers to discover the woods as a place for both imaginative play and contemplation.

The forest comes alive in all its mysterious glory with Maria Dek's charming watercolor images and poetic text in A Walkin the Forest. With the turn of each serenely illustrated page, young readers will follow along to collect pinecones, feathers, or stones; follow the tracks of a deer; or listen to the chirping of birds and the whisper of trees. Build a shelter and play hide-and-seek. Pretend the woods are a jungle or shout out loud to stir up the birds.
 
This nature-themed picture book for kids will invite them on an armchair walk of discovery through the woods, showing them that in the forest, wonders await.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781616895693
Publisher:	Princeton Architectural Press
Publication date:	04/04/2017
Pages:	48
Sales rank:	494,768
Product dimensions:	9.90(w) x 7.60(h) x 0.50(d)
Age Range:	3 - 6 Years

About the Author

Maria Dek is an illustrator based in Gdańsk, Poland. After studying visual arts in London, she went on to receive her degree in illustration at the Beaux-Arts Academy of Warsaw. She has written and illustrated three books, and her illustration clients include cultural and educational institutions. A Walk in the Forest is her first book to be translated into English. 2016 will see the publication of two more of Maria Dek's books in Poland, and one in France.

Editorial Reviews

The sensory pleasures of the woods are on display in A Walk in the Forest, a quietly beautiful book…Dek's illustrations are warmly colored and full of movement—birds wheeling in a sun-dappled canopy; another flock flushed to the sky…the hind quarters of a deer leaping out of the frame. Shifts in perspective abound. One spread shows a wooded pond from the viewpoint of a bird above. The next shows ticklish pond weeds and a blissful pair of submerged feet. These clever visual leaps show how small and how big the forest can feel, and how many different places the forest can be.

The New York Times Book Review - Julia Turner

02/13/2017
In her first children’s book, Polish artist Dek paints and writes about exploring the wild, and one wild place in particular: “In the forest, wonders await.” Simple, childlike watercolors show a boy standing in a wide-open space at the edge of a stand of trees. They’re painted separately and carefully: slender conifers alternate with leafy-crowned deciduous specimens. A page turn, and viewers find themselves amidst the trees. Great trunks reach high; birds sail back and forth. The text is spare: “It’s the best playground ever.” Small vignettes show the boy looking at a group of objects he’s gathered, dragging a stick as he walks, running to catch a dragonfly. Dek pays attention to the forms and texture of the things that grow in the forest, and to the chance discoveries it can provide, as when readers spot just the back of a deer (“Look!”). Treasures—a pinecone, a rock, a butterfly wing—are laid out as a collection. Dek’s invitation to explore the forest’s magic and to leave behind civilization, vehicles, technology—even other people—feels honest and strikingly personal. Her story itself is a journey. Ages 3–6. (Apr.)

Publishers Weekly

"Dek’s invitation to explore the forest’s magic and to leave behind civilization, vehicles, technology-even other people-feels honest and strikingly personal. Her story itself is a journey." - Publisher's Weekly

"The sensory pleasures of the woods are on display in “A Walk in the Forest,” a quietly beautiful book written and illustrated by Maria Dek." - The New York Times Book Review

"Revel in the woods as a magical place for play and exploration. Discover the forest in all its mysterious glory with this book." - Learning Magazine

“A pale-skinned child crosses a blank, white page into a screen of trees, where "wonders await." Readers entering this book's varied landscape encounter similarly wondrous pictures and words. They stand in the child's shoes, enveloped by forest under a lush canopy of green leaves, looking skyward at brilliant birds darting from limb to limb. Verdant watercolor illustrations describe both the density and individuality of the myriad botanicals entwined in woods: fronds, leaves, branches, twigs, stems, grasses, and blossoms. Gentle imperative urgings pull readers into a lush, wooded embrace ("Run wild in the jungle!"; "Follow footprints. / See where they lead you"). Dek's evocative woodland pictures, earnest phrases, and unhurried pacing evoke the quiet pauses and exhilarating discoveries experienced during a walk in the forest. Inventive compositional choices and surprising, shifting perspectives keep readers alert, expectant, and fully engaged. They look from above in all-encompassing aerial illustrations; they burble underwater, examine nests, seeds, blossoms, and wild strawberries, gaze eye to eye with a fox, and survey upper branches from a bough. Deer and birds come and go across the page. Vines creep. Footprints meander. A breathless quiet falls on wordless spreads, conjuring that feeling of clearheadedness offered by nature. A startling, successful evocation of the natural world and an urgent entreaty for young people to immerse themselves in the outdoors. (Picture book. 4-8)” - Kirkus Reviews, Starred Review

From the Publisher

★ 2017-02-04
A pale-skinned child crosses a blank, white page into a screen of trees, where "wonders await." Readers entering this book's varied landscape encounter similarly wondrous pictures and words. They stand in the child's shoes, enveloped by forest under a lush canopy of green leaves, looking skyward at brilliant birds darting from limb to limb. Verdant watercolor illustrations describe both the density and individuality of the myriad botanicals entwined in woods: fronds, leaves, branches, twigs, stems, grasses, and blossoms. Gentle imperative urgings pull readers into a lush, wooded embrace ("Run wild in the jungle!"; "Follow footprints. / See where they lead you"). Dek's evocative woodland pictures, earnest phrases, and unhurried pacing evoke the quiet pauses and exhilarating discoveries experienced during a walk in the forest. Inventive compositional choices and surprising, shifting perspectives keep readers alert, expectant, and fully engaged. They look from above in all-encompassing aerial illustrations; they burble underwater, examine nests, seeds, blossoms, and wild strawberries, gaze eye to eye with a fox, and survey upper branches from a bough. Deer and birds come and go across the page. Vines creep. Footprints meander. A breathless quiet falls on wordless spreads, conjuring that feeling of clearheadedness offered by nature. A startling, successful evocation of the natural world and an urgent entreaty for young people to immerse themselves in the outdoors. (Picture book. 4-8)

Kirkus Reviews