Out of School and Into Nature: The Anna Comstock Story

Perfect title, charming & enlightening & important, book.

I love the new picture-book biographies. When I was growing up all I recall are the heavier books that we'd use to write school reports. But now there are so many *stories* about people for kids to enjoy and to be inspired by. And the serious bit is reserved for the back matter, so the more casual and younger readers can just appreciate learning about these role models.

I also love that they're not as often about traditionally famous (read: mostly white male) people. These new biographical stories are very often about people who deserve to be more famous, who have actually done work that is of more significance and lasting impact. Comstock certainly does deserve that this book show more was written about her... and so does every family and every schoolchild deserve to read it. show less

This book for readers 5 and up tells the story of Anna Botsford Comstock, born in 1854, who became a pioneering naturalist. The author explains how Anna wanted to study nature - especially insects. Anna went to Cornell to study and also developed her skill of drawing what she saw, using a microscope to ensure accuracy. The author writes, “Her bugs looked so real they almost crawled right off the paper!” One professor even started using her pictures as visual aids during his lectures.

She became known as an expert on nature. In the Afterword the author tells us that in 1895, New York officials consulted her for help when farms began producing less food because more farm children left for cities instead of staying home to work family show more fields. Anna discovered that New York schools weren’t teaching any classes about nature, so students didn’t gain any appreciation for the land. She decided to help by designing lesson plans about the mysteries of nature which “captivated curious teachers.” Soon, nature classes sprang up everywhere. Anna also asked teachers to take their classes outside, so “nature itself could teach children.” Several schools agreed, “and the children became wild about nature!” In 1898 she was appointed Assistant Professor of Nature Study at Cornell University - the first woman to held the title of “Professor” at Cornell.

Anna then wrote and/or illustrated books and textbooks about nature, collaborating with her entomologist husband John Henry Comstock. Her most popular book was called Handbook of Nature Study, and despite having over 900 pages, the author writes that when it was released in 1911, “it flew off bookstore shelves like swallows soaring south in summer.”

Anna died in 1930 but her books lived on, her handbook having been translated into eight languages and reprinted dozens of times.

Quotations from Comstock are interwoven into the text.

Evaluation: This book is perfect for younger readers, with its easy words and appealing watercolors by Jessica Lanan showing flowers and insects and nature scenes. Today’s children can use a reminder of all the wonder that is just outside and not found on their smart phones or videogames. show less

Anna Comstock is a name quite familiar to Charlotte Mason educators, as she wrote the popular Handbook of Nature Study. This picture book is an overview of her life as a student, naturalist, artist, and teacher. She loved nature as a child, and this grew into a passion that she developed at college, which was unusual for women at the time (1870s). She worked as a naturalist and scientist and later worked to introduce the study of nature into schools. The narrative is sweet and simple and captures the scope of a life born of love for the natural world. The soft illustrations look like they could have come out of a nature journal.

I loved this book! I had no idea about the story of Anna Comstock. This book encourages curiosity about nature in young children. Also, this book shows that women can accomplish anything they set their minds too!

picture book biography, about someone I never heard of, and me a nature girl ...

picture book biography about various colors in nature.Ages: 3-7. Source: Pierce college fort steilacoom library early childhood shelves.