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Rating: 
Summary: Highly recommend
Review: Charming and informative. The author has a nice way with words.
Rating: 
Summary: Field Guides need illustrations for ALL the animals/plants!
Review: I bought two of the books in the 3 book series. The writing is excellent, however, what good is a "field guide" if illustrations are not included for all of the featured plants and animals? If the publisher is ever going to consider a new edition, perhaps this could be taken into consideration. I will keep these books, however still look for a "Field Guide" that offers more reference material.
Rating:
Summary: Field Guides need illustrations for ALL the animals/plants!
Review: I bought two of the books in the 3 book series. The writing is excellent, however, what good is a "field guide" if illustrations are not included for all of the featured plants and animals? If the publisher is ever going to consider a new edition, perhaps this could be taken into consideration. I will keep these books, however still look for a "Field Guide" that offers more reference material.
Rating:
Summary: A fun read!
Review: I especially liked the friendly tone of these essays and also the author's sense of humor. Fascinating info about how plants and animals live their lives--I learned a lot.
Rating:
Summary: Brittle Stars and Mudbugs
Review: Pat Lichen weaves fascinating scientific information with humor, personal experience, and heartfelt tenderness for the natural world. Linda Feltner's drawings gently accentuate the essays. I recommend Pat's three books, Brittle Stars and Mudbugs, River-Walking Songbirds and Singing Coyotes, and Passionate Slugs and Hollywood Frogs, as enjoyable reading and good reference for any household in the Pacific Northwest.
Rating:
Summary: Truly an Uncommon Field Guide
Review: Patricia Lichen's Brittle Stars & Mudbugs truly is an uncommon field guide. Newly relocated to the Pacific Northwest and Puget Sound area I have half-filled a bookshelf with the more traditional field guide. Those, with their high quality photos or detailed drawings, I use to key out the fine distinctions between hard to discern animals and plants.When I want pure enjoyment exploring Puget Sound's natural environs I bring out Lichen's book. Her conversational writing style and twinkle-in-the-eye wit along with her obvious love for her subject matter breath life into whatever she describes. Linda Feltner's illustrations are ideally suited for this book and enhance the pleasurable reading. As soon as I finish writing this review I am ordering her two other books on the Northwest.
Rating:
Summary: Truly an Uncommon Field Guide
Review: Patricia Lichen's Brittle Stars & Mudbugs truly is an uncommon field guide. Newly relocated to the Pacific Northwest and Puget Sound area I have half-filled a bookshelf with the more traditional field guide. Those, with their high quality photos or detailed drawings, I use to key out the fine distinctions between hard to discern animals and plants. When I want pure enjoyment exploring Puget Sound's natural environs I bring out Lichen's book. Her conversational writing style and twinkle-in-the-eye wit along with her obvious love for her subject matter breath life into whatever she describes. Linda Feltner's illustrations are ideally suited for this book and enhance the pleasurable reading. As soon as I finish writing this review I am ordering her two other books on the Northwest.
Rating:
Summary: A delightful, personal introduction to the NW shore life
Review: This delightful little book is an absolute pleasure to read. It fits nicely in the hand, the pages are easy to read, and the illustrations are gentle and lovingly drawn. The author tells you stories about these animals, plants and algae the way she would if you were walking with her along the beach and came across each specimin. It's not ordered by phylum or habitat, but apparently randomly, which ensures that you won't tire of reading all about fish, but instead will move quickly to birds and seaweed and echinoderms and back. I live on the beach, and volunteer at the Seattle Aquarium, and these stories help me tell compelling stories to audiences and friends of all ages. They bring the funny objects you see on the beach to life, and make each animal or plant that you see seem a friend, a neighbor, someone whose life you care about. This should slow your steps on the beach, so that you will see the life around you more clearly, and should increase your commitment to conservation and cleanup. It's tough to abuse a neighborhood that you care about, and Patricia and Linda bring these organisms close to you so that you will care about them. As an earlier reviewer pointed out, this is not a field guide that will help you identify what you see -- it is one that will help you understand what you see, and that's what makes it uncommon and (in my opinion) so very special. Thanks to the author and illustrator for such a magnificent addition to my library of field guides and books on biology. This one is a treasure.
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