The Observologist: A Handbook for Mounting Very Small Scientific Expeditions by Giselle Clarkson. Gecko Press, 2023. 978177657190. 120pp. Includes an index, a final exam, and a certificate of completion in the back, plus a Where Is Waldo? element that you probably won't notice until you get to the end.
The book defines Observology as the study of looking, and observologists as those who make small scientific expeditions every day in (but not limited to) damp places, on pavement, on weedy patches of ground, and behind curtains. Many bugs are shown and explained in detail; the illustrations are fabulous. The section on bees is my favorite, but there are others that will be helpful to budding observologists like "how to sneak up on a bug", and others that will be more helpful to the bugs themselves, like "how to save a moth from drowning" and "how to help an exhausted bee."
This is another of those books I wish I'd had as a kid, back when my grandparents bought me boring nonfiction for kids from the backs of periodicals. It's oversized, fun, and encourages a level of kindness in budding scientists that I have never seen in books like it.
