Wings, Waves & Webs: Patterns in Nature, to wonder and dream

If I taught a photography class I would issue this challenge to my students. First off, they’d get two shots and neither of them could use a filter or emoji. Now that I’ve eliminated 80% of the people who would enroll in the class, here’s the challenge. Take a photograph in this room of something creative, beautiful, startling or odd. You’re only able to use what’s in the room and can’t move things around or otherwise stage the photo. The point to the exercise is that there is beauty all around us, it’s just that sometimes you have to look for it, squint your eyes or tilt your head. Wings, Waves & Webs: Patterns in Nature is an illustrated book that jumps knee-deep into the world of observation, as it can be seen by elementary school ages.

You could think of Wings, Waves & Webs as an artistic primer for young ages. It’s a way to show them the logical flow of things in nature, or life. It’s a practical explanation as to why the photograph of the meandering river is, on average, much more interesting than a shot of one that resembles the boards on your deck. This is a book that wants kids to see the forest AND the trees, but will also point out the collective motion pattern that they both make.

It does all of this, in addition to being a charming illustrated book that treats children in a very smart manner, but is also approachable. Every two pages point out patterns that exist in nature, with an example of said pattern beside it. When it shows you spots there’s an illustration of a feather with spots and the go-to ladybug. Sure, that’s easy and predictable, you’ll be expecting that and stripes too.

Spirals though, that’s a new pattern that the very young won’t be expecting. Mirror symmetry, woah, that’s a pattern that the middle school students will recognize, but probably can’t put a name to. What’s that doing in an elementary-age book? Radial symmetry, yeah, you might have to think on that one for a moment if you’re reading the book aloud to some kids. Cracks, waves, branching, and others will rear their creative heads too, each of which is accompanied by two examples. Collective motion was a new one for us, that’s why I had to mention it earlier in the review, just in case anyone checked out and I’ll seem more intelligent.

The book ends with a two-page illustration of sunflowers and a variety of things happening around them. It also illustrates somewhere on those pages an example of each of the patterns that Wings, Waves & Webs showed young readers earlier. The fun doesn’t stop there. In actuality, this is where the book and my imaginary photography class would merge and provide in-class creative, as well as, calm down time. 

For younger audiences, like those pre-k or first grade students you don’t even need to read the brief text that accompanies the pages. The illustrations are dreamy enough to engage those ages and are big enough to get them to notice the patterns that are in the rooms where they are. The slightly older kids will look at the illustration of the Milky Way and realize that it’s in a pattern where they’ve seen it before if they’ve looked at the stars in a rural location in the spring and early summer months.

Wings, Waves & Webs: Patterns in Nature is not an art book, per se. It’s artistic in nature, yes, but it’s not asking kids to break out their watercolors and get creative. Instead, this an illustrated book that takes its dreamy time in asking kids to look at things around them and see the forest, trees, animals that live in its underbrush and the pattern that it takes for all of them to do so. It’s immersive fun that’s best suited for those ages two through six as they learn the concept of seeing the bigger picture, or the smaller details that make it up.

Wings, Waves & Webs: Patterns in Nature is by Robin Mitchell Cranfield and is available on Greystone Kids.

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