For Backyard Explorers

How Things Work in the Yard

As bugs begin to flit about and crawl up fingers this spring, children will be racing inside with questions about all that they see.

To help nurture their enthusiasm for nature and activities they love to do in the yard, here are two learning books that will keep them wide-eyed to the last page:

Bugs by the Numbers, an insect book that wows with graphics and facts, and How Things Work in the Yard, an exploration of creatures and playthings in a child's backyard.

For more about these sweet titles from Blue Apple Books, read my reviews below!

Bugs by the Numbers

Facts and Figures for Multiple Types of Bugbeasties

By Sharon Werner & Sarah Forss

Blue Apple Books, 2011

$19.99, ages 4-8, 56 pages

Little entomologists will delight in every page of this clever tribute to tiny creatures that crawl and fly, pester and amaze.

The gals behind the enchanting Alphabeasties and Other Amazing Types promise a myriad of marvels in this number bug book and deliver -- with lots of giggles.

As with that award-winner, Werner and Forss build creatures from numbers of varying size and fonts, and explore facts though fun graphics and flip-out pages.

"Each bug on these pages / Looks unique and rare, / Not like the insects / You see everywhere," reads a poem in the front fold. "They're made up of numbers: / The ones that you count. / 'Cause when you think bugs, / You think BIG amounts."

Alphabeasties Amazing Activities

By Sharon Werner and Sarah Forss

Blue Apple Books, 2010

$12.99, ages 6 and up, 64 pages

Our buddy the alligator is eating some odd things that start with the letter "A" and it's up to you to write them down before he gobbles them up.

In this delightful hands-on companion to the Alphabeasties picture book, readers practice their letters and numbers, and even count change, without ever realizing they're working out their brain.

On one page, children are asked to write capital "H's" to fill in a man's hair. On another, they search for "J's" in pictures, include one pair masked as a girl's legs as she jumps for joy.

There are also letter mazes, words to unscramble, tic-tac toes, animals to fill in with the first letter of their name and more than 300 letter stickers to design characters, including an S-shaped snowman.

My favorite worksheets: a page of letters in different typefaces for kids to color in with faces and a page to make thumbprint pictures that start with the letter "T."