New book helps kids be nature detectives

BY CHRISTY MARSTERS

The Hants Journal

NovaNewsNow.com

Peggy Kochanoff always enjoyed the outdoors as a child. She would spend hours frolicking in the woods, running through the leaves, swimming in the sun and playing make-believe. “I’ve always liked the little things in life,” Kochanoff recalls.

Now, with her third self-written and self-illustrated children’s book You Can Be a Nature Detective released, she hopes to re-inspire a new generation to share a lost enthusiasm for nature. “Because if they see how neat it is, they’ll want to protect it,” she said. “I’d like parents to go through this book and read it with their children. “I want people just to have fun in nature,” Kochanoff said. “It’s so wonderful and it’s all intertwined. It is so important people develop this bond with their environment. “Look at the environment now. It’s terrible and scary, but it’s this way because in an era of technology many kids haven’t been given a chance to grow with nature and a lot of people do not care if an animal or plant becomes extinct anymore,” Kochanoff said. “I needed to do this simply for kids, to get kids inspired.”

Discover nature through the senses

You Can Be a Nature Detective helps children discover nature using basic senses to explain specifically what they see and hear when they come across a nest, track, pellet, bug, frog, leaf, caterpillar, marking, hole or certain smell outdoors. The book also uses various watercolour paintings to illustrate the things to be discovered. “It feels good, as a kid, to be able to identify these things,” Kochanoff said. “I try to get the children to use their senses and the drawing also help engage these young ones.”

It was great fun to do and that’s what it’s all about, Kochanoff added. “I love to go out and be in nature just to get out and get rejuvenated. Everything in this book, you can find. And I hope (if the book sells and people really like it) I’ll be able to do another.”

The book costs $15 and anyone wanting a copy can just drop by her house on 12 Curry Road, Falmouth.