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.]