West Coast Wild: A Nature Alphabet

by Deborah Hodge

Karen Reczuch (Illustrator)

Celebrate the Pacific west coast with this gorgeous nature alphabet book.

This stunning nature alphabet book explores the fascinating ecosystem of the Pacific west coast — a magnificent area that combines an ancient rainforest, a rugged beach and a vast, open ocean, and where whales, bears, wolves, eagles and a rich variety of marine species thrive in an interconnected web of life.

Author Deborah Hodge has spent more than forty years on the west coast, frequently visiting the Pacific Rim region, and she knows it intimately. From A to Z she describes in vivid language the rainforest, ocean and beach, and a great variety of animals that a child might see walking along the shore — from tiny sea jellies to inquisitive sandpipers to leaping orcas. Illustrator Karen Reczuch brings her remarkable talent to the book, and has created image after image that is simply breathtaking. The text and art have been carefully checked for scientific accuracy.

Includes a note about the Pacific west coast and suggestions for exploring the region and further reading.

Correlates to the Common Core State Standards in English Language Arts:

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.K.7
With prompting and support, describe the relationship between illustrations and the story in which they appear (e.g., what moment in a story an illustration depicts).

• ISBN10: 1554984408
• ISBN13: 9781554984404
• Publish Date: 15 October 2015
• Publish Status: Active
• Publish Country: CA
• Imprint: Groundwood Books Ltd ,Canada
• Format: Hardcover
• Pages: 48
• Language: English

Reviews

[Kait ✨]

West Coast Wild is an illustrated alphabet book. It is beautifully illustrated, and so important: as Deborah Hodge writes in her Author’s Note, “The Pacific west coast is an awe-inspiring place, with an extraordinary community of living things and a rare, wild beauty that is vital to preserve.” I’ve never been to the West Coast, but I feel that nature conservation everywhere is important, and Hodge does a wonderful job of making her readers fall in love with B.C.’s coastline. Though, I have to confess, my favourite letter was “W,” for wolves: “W is for wolves that swim in the ocean and roam in the rainforest. Coastal wolves fish for salmon, dig for clams and eat mussels and barnacles on the beach.” I didn’t know there were coastal wolves, and it was pretty cool to learn something interesting about a species so close to home that’s also a marine animal.