Pond Year

A study of a pond and its wildlife observed through one whole year - the second picture book by the illustrator of the award-winning "Think of an Eel".;This is the story of a year in the life of a pond, and of two six-year-old girls who go there to play each day. In spring they gather twigs, build little rafts and look for frogs' eggs and then tadpoles. When the water gets warmer they go paddling and wade over to where the lady's slippers, rare wild flowers, grow. By mid summer, they can see algae, crayfish, dragonflies and frogs to watch, and lots of mud and scum to play with. There are water-lilies too and salamanders, as well as almost every kind of water bug you can think of. In the autumn the muskrats make their nests in the banks then, as winter approaches, the pond creatures burrow into the mud to sleep and the pond becomes a black mirror. Winter brings ice and the pond is turned into a skating rink. Then, at last, spring returns.;In this book Kathryn Lasky recalls the pond in her backyard in her own childhood.;Mike Bostock is the illustrator of "Think of an Eel" by Karen Wallace which won both the Kurt Maschler Award and The Times Educational Supplement's Junior Information Book Award, and was runner-up for The Mother Goose Award.