When snow still covers Himalayans mountains, spring has come to England with its beautiful flowers, and the fjords in Normandy awakes from its sleep. Each months are different in parts of the world. With unique animals in each region, the book travels through months, showing fascinating facts in this world. A beautifully illustrated oeuvre, this is a must read (and must have) books to read again and again, moreover to those who enjoys travelling.

I received an advance reader copy of this book to read in exchange for an honest review via netgalley and the publishers.

What Are You Doing Today Mother Nature? is a fun and adventurous book for children allowing them to travel to the far side of the earth without leaving the room they're in. This book teaches so much and is spread out over the course of a year. Each chapter in the book tells stories from all different parts of the world and helps children to understand things such as when it's cold and wet/snowy in one place it's very hot and sunny in another. This can be a confusing concept for children and I loved how it is explained in this book. The seasons are of course included and the illustrations are beautiful. There's so much to learn from cover to cover even for grown ups sharing this with a child. This is definitely a book I'd love to have in physical format one day.

Such a gorgeous collection, thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for letting me access it in exchange for my feedback.

Be prepared to make a trip around the world and discover some of nature's most amazing phenomenons!

Although this is presented as a children's picture book, it'll certainly capture the heart of many adults too.
Why? Let's take a look!

The setup of this book is rather unique: arranged around the full cycle of a calendar year, each month chapter features four stories each from a different part of the world.
Thus 48 narrative nonfiction stories tell us more about fascinating natural phenomenons, fauna and flora from every continent.
As we watch the seasons go by, it's impossible not to be enchanted at all those wonders of nature!

Personally, I was in such awe of the many presented unknown facts (at least to me) that I wanted to know more about them and see them with my own eyes: snow leopards in Afghanistan, a superbloom at Death Valley, the sea of stars at the Maldives, the Namibia beetle which could help us solve water shortage, the several Vogelkop birds from New Guinea that are both amazingly beautiful and absolutely funny to watch, …
Thanks to Youtube there was so much educational footage that taught me even more details.
A selection of the most interesting and funniest ones can be found at my blog in the article Wonders of Nature: https://world-of-tau.blogspot.com/2022/09/wonders-of-nature.html

Biology, geography, … are some of the fields that can be explored with these stories.
Hence this book is an excellent starting point to brighten up (STEM-)classes and evoke a sense of wonder in children and adults alike.

The beautiful illustrations are detailed and non-linear. There are always different panels (like in a comic book) but without lines between them and with a varying order and size at each page. Most of the time the pictures efficiently guide you along the right direction. Twelve of the stories are told on 1 page and the other thirty-six are 2-page spreads which enhance the immersion of the reader in this colorful world.
You can see some of these pages at the website of the publisher (https://www.quarto.com/books/9780711269668/what-are-you-doing-today-mother-nature) (by clicking on the little icons under the cover of the book) and at the one of the illustrator (https://www.nanofevrier.com/childrenbooksillustration) (the first 7 pictures are from this book).

The text is written by Lucy Brownridge who's an author and editor of children's books based in London. She writes books for children about history of art, history, animals and science. She has an MA in history of art from the Courtauld Institute of Art and a BA in history of art from the University of Bristol.

The beautiful drawings were made by Margaux Samson-Abadie, alias Nano Février, who's a French illustrator & pattern designer with a background in textiles and fashion design. After working several years as a designer in childrenwear, she's now a freelancer always on the look for exciting projects — be it illustration for children books, magazines or surface pattern design for fashion, interior decoration, stationery, … Her work is rooted in nature, childhood memories, folklore, travels, literature, cinema and music. She likes to tackle subjects such as ecology, slow living and mindfulness. To get an idea of her work, you can head over to her website: https://www.nanofevrier.com/

*Thanks to NetGalley and Wide Eyed Editions (an imprint of The Quarto Group) for providing a digital copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

A beautiful book that follows the changing of the seasons all over the world! Incredibly informational and would make an excellent resource for teachers when discussing weather,seasons, and their impact on animals.

This book offers a lovely, fascinating look at nature from around the world. It is organized by month with four entries in each section. For example, June has tidbits from the U.S., Indonesia, England and Palestine. All are vividly illustrated. One of the many double page spreads that I enjoyed was titled “A Little Chick’s Long Day.” It was about an Adelie penguin.

This book would make a very nice gift for a child whom you would like to encourage to appreciate our amazing natural world.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Quarto-Wide Eyed Editions for this title. All opinions are my own.

This book goes through each month focusing on different places around the world each time. You get to see what animals and locations are experiencing throughout the seasons. There are cute storylines with the animals showing the reader what life is like for that animal, like a squirrel searching for its food. The index at the back is useful for kids that want to look back at a specific place or animal. Great illustrations and concise information with enough detail to leave you feeling satisfied.

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ -- Beautiful cover!

What a beautifully illustrated book this turned out to be. ❤️ Divided into the twelve months of the year, and featuring a brief (1-2 page) story (facts) about nature and different animals from around the world. Honestly, this book gets 5 stars based on the illustrations alone. They are bright, colorful, and would definitely be a tremendous hit for kids. Throw in the tidbits of information from places around the world, and you have the makings of a fantastic gift. Heck, ever I would love a physical copy to use as a coffee-table book! 😉 Two HUGE thumbs up from yours truly!

**ARC Via NetGalley**

This book answers the question posed in its title, What are you doing today, Mother Nature? It provides colorful, bold detailed illustrations of how nature reveals itself in different places around the world over the course of a year. For example, in March we see tulip bulbs blooming in the Netherlands, frogs defrosting in Canada, a black sun ballet of birds providing an "eclipse" in Denmark, and grey whales returning to Mexico from the Arctic to start their families. The emphasis here is fostering appreciation of the variety found in nature. Interesting to read and examine, it takes readers on a round the world tour.

From Trinidad, Nepal, Kenya, Saudi Arabia and more this book covers so much of the Earth. I think, perhaps, I didn’t know what to expect when reading the description because this not only exceeded my expectations but went above and beyond in more ways than one.

I originally viewed this as a book for children and it absolutely is but as an adult this book will teach you many things. I believe I averaged about 3-5 things per page that I simply hadn’t known and when the books focal point is the imagery (which I will get to next) and has several, simple sentences to summarize and inform on the imagery… well, that’s spectacular writing. It was thorough, to the point and attention grabbing — both the imagery and the information provided.

I don’t know you but I know upon reading this book you’ll be transported to places and live lives of beings you never knew existed on this beautiful planet.

The imagery is stunning. Everything captured is very realistic and filled with many shades of ever color imaginable. If I’m to reflect on this books artistry I think I’d be sent back to one of the first pages that beautifully crafted macaws in Peru. This page, in art, would be my favorite.

5/5, I’m very grateful to have been one of the first to experience the world in such a way at home for free. I would and will purchase this for preschool curriculum and I can think of several activities already that could go hand in hand with these pages.

I am in awe of the absolutely stunning illustrations. I really enjoyed reading this and felt there was plenty of facts about each natural event. My favourite illustration was the angry squirrel at the end!
I would really recommend this for children with an interest in colourful books and the natural world.

Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for the opportunity to read and review this book. Unfortunately, since I cannot download it in the format to my Kindle, I am unable to read and review. Thank you.

This book is divided into the months of the year and tells short, 1-page stories about different parts of the world each month of the year. The stories discuss the plants and animals interacting together in their habitat during each passing month and season. With beautiful, intricate pictures and short 1-2 sentence blurbs of text scattered throughout the picture, a story can be told in short spurts across one page. There is tons of great geographic and scientific information about things such as life cycles, weather, plants and animals adaptations, astronomy and more. I think this book will be intriguing and educational for children interested in learning more about the vast and beautiful world we live in. I love that it is organized by month so that you can see that different months are different seasons depending on where in the world you live. I also think that it is great that there are such a mix of ideas and content because auroras and eclipses are as interesting as life cycles and adaptations, each in their own way.

I could definitely see this book in my Grade 3 classroom library and would highly recommend it to parents and teachers of children in the age 5-12 range. Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for giving me the opportunity to read and review this book!