The Everyday Naturalist is an engaging monograph for foragers and nature lovers who want to gain confidence with their IDs and interactions - by observation and documentation, not as a field guide, written and curated by Rebecca Lexa. Released 17th June by Penguin Random House on their Ten Speed Press imprint, it's 272 pages and is available in paperback and ebook formats.
The author does a good job of showing readers how to observe and record information in order to narrow down the possibilities for plant and animal species they see in nature. Although proper binomial nomenclature (Latin names) are used throughout, it's not a field guide for ID in any sense of the word. In fact, there are very few photographs at all included in the text, but it is liberally illustrated in with detailed color pen/pencil/ink drawings by Ricardo Macía Lalinde. They are beautifully rendered and add a lot of depth and detail to the text. Illustrations are accompanied by simple captions.
The author has included guidelines and field note templates to fill in with observations for fungi, animals, and plants. They're fairly detailed and self-explanatory. There are also useful appendices including glossary, detailed resource/bibliography lists, and a cross-referenced index.
Four stars. It would be a good choice for public or secondary school library acquisition, for home use, or possibly for foraging and gardening groups.
Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.
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