New Spring Nature Books for Kids

I love Spring! Even though it hasn't shown up yet here in chilly Minnesota, we are preparing for it in our home with new Spring books from Dawn Publications. From Meadow Mice to Swamp creatures and Ocean life, it is time to get excited about nature!

This season Dawn Publications has used Augmented Reality technology to make The Mouse and the Meadow not only a children’s book but an interactive experience. The Mouse and the Meadow is a super cute story of a young mouse who quickly comes of age as he sets out to explore his meadow. There he meets many remarkable creatures. Spider has tangled intentions. Firefly really knows how to put on a show. Mother rabbit is kind. Turtle is wise. Others would have him for lunch! Fortunately, help arrives just in time.


Augmented Reality picture books are the next generation of Pop-Up App books for children and Dawn Publications is at the forefront of this trend. Dawn has taken ordinary pages of a picture book and made them come alive with 3-D animated images.

This isn’t to be confused with a book app. This is actually utilizing the physical book and turning it into a 3-D interactive experience while it reads you the story. We didn’t have a name for this new technology and we wanted to distinguish it from a book app so we called it a “Pop-Up App”.

Here's how it works:
You take the picture book, Pop-Up The Mouse and the Meadow and scan the QR code on the back of the book. That takes you to a web page with a demonstration and instructions to download the AR app for FREE from iTunes. Once the app is loaded on your Android or iOS device you hover the device over the book and it will start reading the story. Simply move the iPad, iPhone or Android over the page of the book and watch as the Meadow Mouse and other creatures pop up off the page! If you touch the animals on the device they magically move around on the page and interact with each other.

The Swamp Where Gator Hides by Marianne Berkes is a fun, suspenseful book that your children will love! Under the algae that carpets the swamp, near the duck who paddles in ooze, close to the turtle who takes a snooze . . . hides a gator! Still as a log, only his watchful eyes can be seen. But when gator moves, he really moves! What happens to the duck, the turtle, the egret, the deer, and the many other critters of the swamp when gator makes his move?



On Kiki’s Reef by Carol L. Malnor is a book that will grab your heart and have your kids asking to read it over and over. At least that is what happened in our family! A tiny baby sea turtle scrambles across the sandy beach and into the sea. Floating far out in the ocean, Kiki is becoming a gentle giant. She swims to shallower water where a rainbow of corals puts on a show. Kiki adopts the busy coral reef as her new home and discovers fish of all sizes and lots of surprises! But something keeps calling her back to the beach . . . and the circle of life continues.




Seashells by the Seashore Board Book by Marianne Berkes is a wonderful book full of new information that will gets your children interested in learning more about the beach! Discover natural treasures at the beach! Seashells were the homes of sea creatures, now washed ashore. They are works of art, waiting to be admired and identified. This book introduces young children to ten common shells and offers a hands-on lesson in nature’s simple wonders, as they walk the beach counting and naming these beautiful shells




These new Spring books are full of variety, so that no matter what your children are interested in, they will get excited about learning and nature! As a mom and teacher, Dawn Publications has done it again! There books are superb and will become your children's favorites!