Pocket
Observology: A Field Guide
Pocket Observology: A Field Guide
Giselle Clarkson (text and ill.)
Gecko Press (2026)
Information
96 pages, Paperback
ISBN 979 8348 042 42 4
‘Any scrappy patch of weeds has a hundred things just
waiting for your eyeballs.’
Giselle Clarkson was already celebrated for her witty
illustrations and searching comic-strip analysis of children’s classics on The
Sapling website, not to mention winning a shelf of awards before the
publication of her light-hearted nature guides: Omnibird: An Avian
Investigator’s Handbook (2025) and The Observologist (2023) gave her
an international reputation for making wildlife studies both amusing and
enjoyable.
Pocket Observology: A Field Guide (2026) is a good
size for parka pockets (171mm x 222mm) and has a weather-resistant cover.
In fact, the fold-out cover is so impressive that it
deserves its own review. The swing-out fold on the front cover shows both sides
of a large leaf. From the front, the reader sees only an odd yellow patch, some
insect droppings and a few nibbled holes. Flip it over and the back of the leaf
makes all become clear. A suspicious silhouette is a stink bug resting near a
clutch of its tiny eggs. Aphids are sucking the leaf and turning it yellow. A
ladybird is eating the aphids. An ant is harvesting the ‘sugary aphid poop,’
while a snail is sheltering from the sun. And so, a new generation of junior Sherlock
Holmes of the natural world has been created by Giselle Clarkson.
The rest of the front cover holds a handy measurement
guide, for young observologists, showing the outlines of some helpfully-sized
everyday objects such as a green pea, an almond, a hen egg, a matchbox and a
ballpoint pen. The ‘ostrich’s brain’ seems tiny but accurate. The
carefully-labelled ‘grain of sand’ may be there somewhere but I can hear
Giselle Clarkson laughing.
Over on the back cover, there’s a real fold-out ruler for
measuring critters, with a 200 mm worm neatly stretched out alongside it.
There’s also a race-track for snails, complete with sensible guidelines for
racing.
The book itself is every bit as good as its cover. In
clear simple language, it tells us how to look more closely at the natural
world around us and how to understand what we see. Observology, for example, is
defined as ‘the study of looking’.
The Contents List
and the sections are colour-coded, so it is easy to leaf through to the exact
topic you need. The invertebrates (insects, worms, spiders) have blue-edged
pages while birds have orange, and plants and fungi are green. (Design is by the
ever-reliable Vida Kelly.)
My favourite section (red margins) is the amazingly
practical ‘How to …’ pages which cover things young people often want to
do. If you wish to aid an exhausted bee, rescue a worm, pick up a hen, relocate
a spider or help a bird to get out of the house, you are given step-by-step
practical advice and amusing diagrams. The best tip is how to encourage a
fledgling bird to leave a dangerous spot. ‘Don’t pick it up, just slowly
walk towards it and encourage it to hop away.’ The illustration shows how
to creep calmly and slowly, with arms stretched wide to herd it in the right
direction. The accompanying portrait of a wide-eyed fledgling is a gem, worthy
of Durer.
Giselle Clarkson writes well and wittily. Her
explanations are always clear, brief and to the point. She gives young readers
guidance on the many signposts to look for as they enter the world of insects,
plants and birds. These pointers include leaves, webs, beaks, flowers,
footprints, feathers, seeds, shed skins, vomit pellets, droppings, and even
sticks and stones. Each is shown to tell its own story and take its place in
the nature of things. Also included are creatures to listen for, and these are not
just bird calls. Who knew that ‘an unhappy, disturbed snail will squeak and
start frothing’? There’s even a page of diagrams showing Worm Body
Language.
Giselle Clarkson’s colour illustrations are both accurate
and exuberant. In particular, the full-page, annotated pictures of such
critters as the worm, the centipede, the ant and the wasp are a visual delight
and an invitation to learn more. The same applies to her excellent mushroom
diagram.
You can tell that Giselle Clarkson loves invertebrates.
Who else would describe a worm’s colour as a ‘lovely, pretty shade of pink,
like a rose or an iced bun’?
Handy pages show
how to distinguish between wasps and bees, millipedes and centipedes, crickets
and grasshoppers, or slugs and snails. Lively flow charts enable readers to
make connections and encounter more Clarkson humour. They also learn to
identify insects by noting their legs, antennae and even their eggs. (Snails
and slugs lay ‘translucent little pearls’ while earwigs produce eggs
that are ‘pearly but ovoid, not spherical’.)
This book is not all about cockroaches and spiders,
however. There are equally large sections on birds and plants. Also, some good
bits on mosses, lichens, mushrooms and even sticks and stones. No wonder the
title page shows a small child bent over, with their nose very close to the
ground.
The most intriguing picture shows a child seated on the
ground and waving at the world around them, shouting, ‘An abundance of
curiosities!’ Or, as the author sweetly points out, there is almost
certainly an invertebrate in the room with you now. Better keep the book handy.
Trevor Agnew
4 Sep 2026 [Review
3861.]
