The Bookshop

A House for Wanda Wood Duck

Give a kid a storybook and you enrich a life. Get a kid active in wildlife conservation, and you enrich all of our lives. That is the idea behind Ducks Unlimited, Inc.'s, newest children's book, A House for Wanda Wood Duck, written by Patricia Barnes-Svarney and illustrated by Dominic Catalano. The book is the second in the Ducks Unlimited series of natural history titles for children ages 4 through 8; the first, "The Wide World of Suzie Mallard" was published last year (see Birdscapes' Fall 2000 review).

In addition to telling a delightful story, A House for Wanda Wood Duck, conveys an important conservation message about the habitat needs of wood ducks, but there is more. The book also comes with a bonus: a simple diagram with easy-to-follow instructions on how to build a wood duck nest box. Of course, even the best-built nest boxes would be useless if not placed in suitable wood duck habitat and at the proper height on a pole or tree. Youngsters who buy the book and build a nest box can find out where best to place it by calling their local Ducks Unlimited field office or governmental natural resources department.

A House for Wanda Wood Duck can be ordered by calling toll free (800) 45-DUCKS or by visiting www.ducks.org/bookstore. Hardcover, 8 x 10 1/2, 32 pages, color illustrations. Cost is $14.95, plus shipping.

Duck Country: A Celebration of America's Favorite Waterfowl

Why should we care to know more about ducks? Sure, hunters benefit from knowledge of the birds' life cycles and migration patterns and from being able to tell a mallard from a merganser. Bird watchers profit from knowing such things, too, for that matter. But ducks have a story that's fascinating and compelling in its own right.

Duck Country: A Celebration of America's Favorite Waterfowl, written by award-winning nature writer Michael Furtman, explores the amazing variety of dabblers, divers, and sea ducks found throughout North America. It is more than a typical natural history book; it celebrates the many species of ducks that fill our world with beauty, wonder, and grace. Furtman provides a narrative that chronicles these bird's intriguing life cycles, from hatching to fledging to maturity, mating, nesting, and brood rearing, as well as their remarkable migrations that span continents and touch the lives of millions of people. The narratives are accompanied by marvelous photographs that capture wild ducks of every size, shape, and color, from the ubiquitous mallard to the regal canvasback to the exquisite harlequin, all shot in a wide variety of habitats and behaviors. This book should prove a delight for everyone from the general nature lover to the ardent waterfowler.

To order Duck Country: A Celebration of America's Favorite Waterfowl, call toll-free (800) 45-DUCKS, or visit www.ducks.org/bookstore/. Hardcover, 11 x 9, 184 pages, more than 150 color photographs. Cost is US$35, plus shipping.