If you are looking for a book to encourage your students (or yourself) to take an interest in nature study, Elisabeth and the Marsh Mystery is the book. It’s only about 50 pages long, but this short little nature mystery is engaging and well-written, with an ecological message that is not heavy-handed or overemphasized.

Summary: Elisabeth hears a strange sound coming from the marsh. It is definitely NOT Stewart Peebles playing the bugle, although it sounds a little bit like that. And then Mrs. Munch next door sees a monster with huge wings, flying (or walking?) over her flower bed. What can it be? Elisabeth and her father begin to investigate, and the results of that investigation are amazing, even exotic.

SPOILER: The mysterious monster with the loud call is actually a sandhill crane. Learn more about sandhill cranes. Have you ever seen one?

“The Sandhill Crane’s call is a loud, rolling, trumpeting sound whose unique tone is a product of anatomy: Sandhill Cranes have long tracheas (windpipes) that coil into the sternum and help the sound develop a lower pitch and harmonics that add richness.”

I absolutely loved this book, and I’m planning to recommend it far and wide. It is unfortunately out of print, but if you come across a copy, grab it. The illustrations and the map by Erik Blegvad, and especially the cover illustration, are just lovely. I want to enlarge the map and put it on my wall, next to my Narnia map.