This is a must-have book for anyone who enjoys the natural world. I purchased an earlier version nearly 20 years ago and reference it often in my own journaling practice. While the act of keeping a nature journal is timeless, this third edition is a helpful expansion of the earlier text. It contains new prompts and inspiring work from Clare Walker Lesie's own nature journals.

Keeping a Nature Journal is inspiring, beautiful and very enjoyable! Just looking at the pages and browing through the book brings me peace and so much joy! My favorite drawings are the Birds and the Insects - my favorite animals! The Watercolor part is very cool and have me wishing to color with mine! Thank you Netgalley for my Advance copy in exchange for an honest review!

Loads of fun to do with children! Get them interested in what's around them and create awareness and thoughtfulness around nature!

Completely inspiring. There's a reason why it's in its 3rd edition. Not only is it creative but the step by step instructions are encouraging. I've been noticing a lot more about the birds in the area since I picked up the habit to observe nature and journal away.

An interesting and beautifully presented book, though just not for me.

I was keen to read it to give me inspiration on how to keep a journal/record of our garden at home to enable me to look back and see what wildlife I might have spotted when. Also how the garden has developed over time and how it changes over the seasons. I find it hard to do this myself as I find it difficult to focus and filter; I try to record everything at once in every type of media, and then after 2 days give up because it is too much work!
If you are looking for similar guidance you will not find it here. The emphasis of this book is not on what you might record in your journal, but instead on how mindfulness can be developed in the creation of it. I feel that the content is probably geared more towards american readers and just didn’t find that it kept my interest.

Thank you to the author for the ARC.

I received Keeping a Nature Journal by Clare Walker Leslie as an ebook ARC, which I failed to read by the archival deadline and it disappeared from my electronics. I am going to tell you that was not a bad thing. Keeping a Nature Journal is a book that needs to be read with a physical copy in your hands that you can leaf through, skip chapters and come back to them, and just enjoy the experience of savoring this book. That’s far, far too hard to do with an ebook, not to mention that the figures and pictures are never rendered quite as nicely.

At this point, you’ve probably realized that I bought the book. How could I not when I really wanted an opportunity to explore it and delight in it? Keeping a Nature Journal did not let me down.

This book is geared toward anyone who has at a minimum ten minutes where they can be outside and just observe, be mindful of the birds, insects, trees, clouds, whatever nature might exist in front of them. The author encourages the reader to keep a journal to take notes, to draw, to see the world around them. She even gives prompts. This creates an amazing journey.

In its pages, Keeping a Nature Journal helps the reader to see and gives short tutorials on how to draw what one sees. Even me, an artistically floundering writer has bought drawing pencils to try to draw what I see and create my own nature journal.

Also included are pages from the author’s own journal, as well as pictures drawn by her students, as inspiration for the reader’s own journey.

If you’ve thought about starting your own nature journal, Keeping a Nature Journal can definitely help you get there and delightfully get there, I might add.

I received an ARC and bought a copy and these are my honest opinions.

I really enjoyed this book, the illustration are beautiful and the suggested activities good fun. I've been trying to get into journaling more and this past year has definitely given me a greater appreciation for nature so I think I read this at just the right time. I do think this is a book which benefits from being in print over digital as I personally find physical books easier to flip through.

A big thank-you to NetGalley, the author, and publisher for giving me a copy of this book for an unbiased review.

3.5/5 - Liked it quite a bit.

I've always been curious about nature journaling. I find that going out into nature and focusing on a small element of my landscape does wonders for my sense of calm and concentration. This book gave me some great tips on how I can find nature anywhere - even from the window of my apartment. It also had a great section on tips for drawing different types of trees and animals, which I appreciated very much.

It did take a little while to get into the book - I did not enjoy the beginning as much, which covered why someone might want to engage in nature journaling. This felt a bit redundant to me - if someone is reading this book, chances are they don't need so much convincing. It was difficult for me to stay engaged during the first chapter. I would also say that the very end of the book, which focuses on nature journaling in education, was not so relevant to me.

However, the rest of the book is well put together, with extremely practical advise on making nature journaling a habit for those who are interested in the world outdoors.

Keeping a Nature Journal, 3rd Edition
by Clare Walker Leslie

Deepen Your Connection with the Natural World All around You

I wasn’t sure what to expect when requesting this book and since a fellow blogger suggested it to me, I thought, “Why not?” This book is filled with information and almost a collection of the author’s thoughts and ideas captured in sketches and words that have been compiled together with works of other artists of all ages and then shared with the reader.

The book is divided into sections with Part I dealing with why one might keep a nature journal, how to set your journal up, an introduction to drawing and how to keep an ongoing journal. Part II discusses journaling explorations and gives topics that might be considered for observation.

What I liked:
* The variety
* The sketches
* Being able to see how varied nature journaling can be
* Seeing the way teachers use nature journaling with students
* Being inspired to want to pick up sketching again
* The multitude of ideas
* Seeing that I don’t have to be perfect to actually sketch and keep a nature journal
* The idea of mindfulness that was brought in
* Seeing how “artists” keep their journals
* Wondering if this might be an interesting way to keep a diary
* Enjoying the uninhibited sketches by young artists and the clarity with which they saw what was around them.
* All of it really

What I didn’t like:
* Having so many ideas at the end of looking through the book that I can’t choose ONE to actually start in on with a new nature journal.

Did I enjoy this book? Yes
Would I like to have it in my library? Yes

Thank you to NetGalley and Storey Publishing for the ARC – This is my honest review.

5 Stars

I own an older edition of this book and it is really inspiring and informative. I get it off my shelf and page through it every once in a while and it makes me want to journal but I am hopeless at it. I recommend this book to anyone with an interest in nature- even if you can't draw like me. Something I like about this book is that the author emphasizes common birds, animals and plants that most people living in the usa can easily see, its not necessary to travel to far flung locales to find interesting things to study in nature. That being said, this edition isn't much different from the previous and I wouldn't recommend buying this one if you already own it

Excellent guide to help anyone start nature journaling. There are examples of nature journal pages and toward the back there are reference pages to use in teaching young children to observe and record nature and how to incorporate it into an all inclusive curriculum. The main section of the book though is geared toward anyone who is interested in starting to nature journal. There are tips on what to observe and how to draw different objects in nature. This is definitely an invaluable guide that I would love to purchase in hardcopy.

Honestly i wanted to like this so much more than i did. It just felt overwhelming and like there was so much to learn read and take in. Seeing the examples didn't hell either because it jist made me feel crummy because my images sould never look like that. I wish it made me feel more hopeful and excited rather than like an ikea manual that okay frustrates me

I loved this easy-to-read guide to getting started with nature journalling. Lots of step-by-step instructions make it easy to get started and there are inspiring examples included from a variety of different people. I'm definitely inspired to have a go at my own nature journalling now!

This was such an inspiring and encouraging book that helped me to start my own nature journal!! I’ve been keeping track of the birds and wildlife around my boat, it’s been amazing! Thank you for this book.

Reading this book has been such a mindful experience!

I wanted for long to keep a kind of drawing journal and I thought this book would be perfect to make me finally start it. You don't really need to know how to draw, this book actually teaches you how to sketch, how to add shading, color, what tools you need but it also gives you ideas on how to see the nature around. Apart from being full of ideas on what to log on your journal and how to actually keep this practice, what I loved the most about this book is the courage, the nudge it gives you to just start, jump into the practice and enjoy observing your surroundings and log what you see and how you see it.

It also a great book for parents and teachers with a lot of useful tips on how to start doing this practice involving children, too.

What a wonderful book. Here, Clare Walker Leslie offers a well structured array of tips and examples on how to start a nature journal. Whilst the author notes that there are many styles of nature journal available, the emphasis here is upon sketching and artwork. To that end, the book includes a number of excellent tutorials on how to draw various types of plants and animals. The potential to practice mindfulness in the process is also effectively explored.

I approached this book as someone already a keen walker and nature enthusiast. I’ve had some wonderful wildlife experiences over the years from kingfishers to hares to barn owls and beyond and enjoy noting the seasonal changes on my local patch from month to month. However, I document these experiences only in my head. There are plenty of ideas and inspiration in this book to resurrect my teenage drawing hobby and to start my own nature journal.

I’m a time when so many of us are reconnecting with nature and the green spaces around us in order to find peace and sanity in the era of Covid19, the publication of this third edition could not be more prescient. Recommended.

Thank you to NetGalley and Storey Publishing for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This fantastic guide introduces nature journaling, contemplates reasons to do so, and includes a plethora of fantastic ideas and examples of ways you can get out into the world and notice more or do more worth journaling about.

Keeping A Nature Journal is absolutely packed with illustrations and doodles and sketches with notes and footnotes to help you both know what to look for but how to record it. There are tons of tips and tricks for drawing flowers, trees, birds, and more! I've already had so many new ideas for my own journal and feel a little more confident about how to go forward with my journaling.

Whether you're new to nature journaling or just looking for ideas, this helpful guide is sure to inspire!

I have been keeping my own nature journal for the past year, dabbing in and out as I please. This book is perfect for anyone who wants to start out but isn't sure how to go about it. It's a great resource book helping to teach drawing techniques, the best supplies to use and how to get that first page filled out. Full of coloured pictures and quotes from Naturalists like Henry David Thoreau, this would be a nice book to flick through on a lazy day.

' In essence, these are pages of memories that you can return to long after your journey is over'

I would recommend buying the physical copy of this book. It's a larger format and I found it quite difficult to read on my phone. I'm not sure how a kindle copy would be but I think as a reference book, physical would be best.
-Goodreads review
-Instagram review

I like many others in this current pandemic, started to look for ways that calm the anxieties and allow me to switch off from the daily troubles around us. I noticed also that many of my students were finding life difficult and did not know what to do with themselves, whilst isolated from their friends. My pupils started to tell me of the things they seen in their gardens, they had more time now to watch.
This book is an ideal introduction to keeping a nature journal. I will recommend it to my students and use examples from this in class. Things they can look out for in their daily walk, cycle and just sitting in the garden. It is a lovely book that inspires you to take the step to write down and/or draw the things you see. I wish I had done it on a trip to the Scottish islands that I managed to see eagles, whales, seals and porpoises or even last year when one of my flower bushes in the garden was covered in over 30 butterflies. Wonderful! But this book has taught me it’s not too late to start, the best day to begin is now.
I highly recommend this books as a tool for mindful meditation and reflection and to help become more aware of the abundance of nature around us.
Thank you Netgalley for a free eBook review copy in return for an honest review.

Alive to your environment! The art of seeing!

Twenty minutes a day of mindfulness and well being focused on your environment through using various artistic media. A wonderful encouragement to continue or start to take note of the natural world you encounter. In the past I've kept a similar journal but the presentation of ideas and interesting ways to proceed in Leslie’s very accessible guide take things to another level. No wonder this work is in its third edition.
Succinctly arranged, with colorful presentations makes this work a great companion for those already on a similar journey, or a beginning place for anyone interested.
From a chapter on ‘Getting Started’ and what nature journaling is, looking at what observing is, to developing ideas and so much more.
A great layout that calls you to follow. I love the sketches included. All filled with a lovely vitality.
It’s like yoga with pencils and paper, calling us to take time to be very much present in our world.
I will be purchasing this in hard copy once it’s released. I feel the need to savour it more fully than on a pdf file. I might even add it to my present list.

A Storey Publishing ARC via NetGalley
(Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.)