Discover the amazing diversity of life in the northern forest through 12 vivid paintings, one for every month of the year, each with a numbered key to search for and identify the animals, plants, insects and fungi pictured.
Each of artist Jada Fitch's twelve stunning paintings represents the forest during one month of the year, featuring an array of animals, plants, insects, fungi, and other creatures common during those weeks. Opposite each painting is a list of all the species depicted, with corresponding numbers in the art, creating a search-and-find experience that will keep readers of all ages discovering more every time they look. Then turn the page to zoom in and see these creatures in even more gorgeous detail. This wondrous array of wildlife is brought further to life by writer and naturalist Kateri Kosek, who uncovers the many hidden stories and fun facts about the flora and fauna that make up the forest ecosystem, inviting the reader to look more closely at nature all around them. Jada Fitch is an illustrator whose work can be found everywhere from bookshops to nature trails. She has created illustrations for Maine Audubon, American Bird Conservancy, Down East Magazine, Liberty Graphics, The Nature Conservancy, as well as other park foundations, publishers, and magazines. Fitch is the creator of the popular Home Tweet Home window feeder, a decorated tiny home for birds. When not at her desk, Fitch is bird watching or taking photos in the forest. She lives in Addison, Maine.
Kateri Kosek's poetry and essays have appeared in such places as Orion, Terrain.org, Catamaran, Northern Woodlands Magazine, and Creative Nonfiction and Briar Cliff Review. Kosek lectures in English at Northwestern Connecticut Community College, and has taught at Marist College, Dutchess Community College, and Western CT State University, where she mentors in the MFA program in Creative and Professional Writing. She lives in western Massachusetts, where she writes for Berkshire Magazine and The Berkshire Edge and works surveying bird populations in Aton Forest in northwest Connecticut. Opening Essay/Intro
The book's opening section will feature an introductory essay, which (via an interview with her) will reveal Jada's process and practices as both a close observer of nature and an artist. Could include photos of her studio and paintings in progress.
January – December
Each month will open with a spread containing a full-page image of the painting, the list of species within it, and a short intro by the writer. Two additional spreads will follow, showing larger details of small sections of the painting, with short natural history text to go with them.
An Invitation to Look Around You
A final section will offer some basic prompts and exercises inspired by the artwork and themes of the book that encourage the reader to observe nature near them, looking for stories, watching for changes that come with the seasons.
