Forest Magic for Kids - by Susie Spikol (Hardcover)

About the Book

Come discover the wild magic tucked into the nooks and crannies of forests, thickets, and meadows. Search for fairy dusted glow-in-the-dark mushrooms. Find secret worlds hidden in trees and uncover the tunnels, trails, and dens of gnomes and trolls, and mice and moles. Learn to listen to the forest, make sun-warmed pine tea, and wear an evergreen crown to an elf picnic.

Book Synopsis

Your enchanted guide to 50+ magical activities for everything from finding hidden flower fairies in your own backyard and making a special wizard staff to creating a tiny woodland village and making your own forest potions.

Silver Medalist, 2025 National Outdoor Book Awards, Children's Category

Bookshelf Pick, Big Bang Notable Book List 2025

"Science facts readily interweave with a smattering of folklore as the text and charming illustrations encourage kids to charge up their imaginations and get outside....The spirits of scientific inquiry and old-fashioned wonder coexist happily here and will delight magic-minded children."--Booklist

"A delightful outdoor handbook to ignite curiosity and a passion for nature, this is a great resource for nature units as well as hands-on activities to bring a creative writing program to life."--School Library Journal

"Science, folklore, and imagination come together in this delightful offering brimming with ideas to get kids thinking, observing, and discovering outdoor wonders."--Shelf Awareness

Come discover the wild magic tucked into the nooks and crannies of forests, thickets, and meadows. Search for fairy dusted glow-in-the-dark mushrooms. Find secret worlds hidden in trees and uncover the tunnels, trails, and dens of gnomes and trolls, and mice and moles. Learn to listen to the forest, make sun-warmed pine tea, and wear an evergreen crown to an elf picnic.

Look inside to learn how to:

• Keep a secret notebook filled with maps, notes, and pockets for all your discoveries
• Go on a quest for wild treasures
• Follow a queen bumblebee to her castle
• Make your own forest teas and potions
• Become best friends with a tree
• Create tiny gnomes and build cozy gnome homes
• Seek where mushrooms grow after a fairy dance
• Carve a walking stick wizard staff
• Build your own hidden forest fort

Review Quotes

Author Susie Spikol and illustrator Renia Metallinou's first collaboration, Forest Magic for Kids, offers a charming and whimsical array of activities, crafts, and ruminations to encourage children to find wonder in the natural world. Readers are encouraged to step outside, look around, and enjoy some essential "open-ended time in nature." Spikol suggests a list of top 10 tools for a "Forest Magic Search" and a DIY secret notebook for "planning, creating, and designing," then delves into potential activities featuring green plants and wildflowers, foraging, mushrooms, "wee" forest inhabitants, or hidden worlds. She offers abundant prompts for creative thinking, such as recipes for dandelion tea and lembas bread, fanciful crafts like a "mini magical moss garden," and hints for sighting myriad marvelous creatures, including gnomes, trolls, and, of course, fairies. Metallinou's full-color, deeply saturated art offers images of fairy folk, the instruments needed to make the magic, and children taking part in the suggested activities. Science, folklore, and imagination come together in this delightful offering brimming with ideas to get kids thinking, observing, and discovering outdoor wonders.

--Lynn Becker "Shelf Awareness"

Gr 2-6-Children are guided through exploring the natural world with more than 50 activities, including making a secret notebook for all their discoveries, finding a mushroom circle where fairies danced, and turning sticks into dowsing rods or wee fairy companions. Each chapter begins with the science behind nature's wonders, then leads to activities like going on a tree walk and recording information on the trees discovered. Spikol carefully describes each of the steps needed in the crafts, including when an adult's help is required. Respecting nature is a consistent message whether children are using sticks to make magic wands, plants for special tonics, or constructing a hidden fort in their backyard. Chapters end with a "Quest Fest"--a scavenger hunt list of things to find in nature. The notebook is text-heavy, intended for nature enthusiasts, and is to be read not in one sitting but rather as a companion on various outdoor adventures. Metallinou's soft drawings complement the pages, with the final chapter including illustrations of craft projects. It lacks step-by-step drawings or photographs to guide younger children in how to better accomplish the tasks. ­VERDICT A delightful outdoor handbook to ignite curiosity and a passion for nature, this is a great resource for nature units as well as hands-on activities to bring a creative writing program to life.--Heidi Dechief "School Library Journal"

About the Author

Susie Spikol is a naturalist at the Harris Center for Conservation Education in Hancock, New Hampshire. A lifelong animal lover, Susie now helps people of all ages connect with the natural world. She is the author of The Animal Adventurer's Guide (Roost Books, 2002). You can find her at www.susiespikol.com.