Katya's Book of Mushrooms
Fungi, Fauna, Facts & Folklore
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- $13.99
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- $13.99
Publisher Description
Mushrooms are exciting to find, beautiful to look at, fascinating to identify, and delicious to eat. When you know what to look for, a mushroom hunt is as safe and enjoyable as a treasure hunt. Katya Arnold ranges through the world to find hundreds of varieties of mushrooms, as well as fascinating anecdotes and fun facts that make these wonders of nature exciting and immediate. A walk in the woods will never be the same!
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
From common Domestic Caps to the deadly Destroying Angel, from Octopus Stinkhorns to Scaly Hedgehogs--Arnold (Baba Yaga), a lifelong mycophile, here shares her passion for wild mushrooms. In collaboration with Swope (The Araboolies of Liberty Street), she serves up a glorious, earthy stew of fact, humor, folklore and personal stories likely to intrigue readers of all ages. Arnold weaves the serious study of mushrooms into the fabric of a gamesome, enterprising hobby, incorporating the charm of folk names alongside scientific terms and pairing activities with straightforward text. The illustrations are just as eclectic and exuberant: Arnold combines small paintings and cartoons against bright backgrounds; rustic artwork resembling woodcuts; and prints of mushroom caps. The headings include "Mushroom Lovers" (Siberian reindeer favor Fly agaric--"it seems to make them happy"); "Kinds of Mushrooms" (one pound of black truffles "costs as much as a good computer"); and "Identifying Mushrooms" (Hydnellum peckii looks like "a piece of cheese with drops of blood on it"). Arnold's stories from her Russian childhood anchor the book: in one anecdote, Muscovites mistakenly diagnosed an earthquake when "giant slabs of sidewalk" outside a museum were "lifted" by teams of tiny mushrooms. Fungal fervor at its most contagious. Ages 6-10.
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