Wildlife in a City Pond is a a level 4 picture from Pratham’s storyweaver platform.
Wetlands in any city are seen mostly as wasteland, waiting to be built over. It takes a tireless environmentalist to show us what city ponds really are – magically rich ecosystems worth preserving. Based on a real-life experience, here is a story that introduces us to the delightful fauna and flora in the urban landscape.
The book is beautifully illustrated and tells a story about how important wildlife is, and how we can make a difference by standing up for something we believe in.
Author: Ashish Kothari
Illustrator: Sangeetha Kadur
Sample Text from Wildlife in a City Pond
It was dark outside and I could not see much from my window. I had just moved that evening into a new house in the city of Pune, in India.
There was a deafening cacophony emerging from the dark, as if hundreds of badly tuned radios were crackling away!
It was only in the morning that the mystery began to be solved. There, below my balcony, was a small pond in an abandoned quarry. I realized it must be inhabited by many of the animals that woke up only at night!
Over the next year, I watched the pond undergo incredible transformations through the seasons. In summer, the area looked like a dry, lifeless barren depression. But come monsoon and life burst out like an orchestra, waiting for the conductor to give the signal!
The first raindrops on the thirsty land gave off a lovely earthy smell. But they also did what no magician could do, turning the brown earth into an oasis of green and blue.
<End of Page 2>
Project Ideas about Wildlife
The book is a great starting point to inspire trips to local wildlife sanctuaries or nature parks. It is also a good topic for researching groups who support saving conservation areas, or researching the type of creatures who live in such areas. Children can make lap books, project boards, or a book of their own about wildlife and conservation.
About Storyweaver
Pratham’s platform Storyweaver allows people to read, create, translate, and make variations of books. They have thousands of books, and images, which people can make their own books from and share them with others. All the books provided by Pratham are licensed as creative commons, that is they are free to be shared. The only restriction is that all resulting work must be shared in the same way, and due credit must be provided to the original creators (CC-BY-SA).
See more books about Conservation below
With Love Gaia - A beautiful leaf flutters from the palm of Gaia, Mother Earth, with a message for Kaya and Kabir. What is the message? What does Mother Earth want to say to us? Is she hurting? How can we help? Read on to find out about Kaya and Kabir’s adventure and how the children organise their community ...
Save the Planet – Be Nice series book 4, revised edition - Save the Planet is a short simple book for young children, and beginner ESL readers, promoting values of conservation and ecologically-friendly behaviour. This book teaches children ten important lessons about conservation and actions that can help preserve and conserve our natural environment and the resources, for those of us, people and animals, who inhabit it. ...
A Fairytale About Climate Change - Many, many, years ago, in a land far, far away, there lived a beautiful princess that loved ice bears. Everything in the land was perfect, because the citizens respected the laws of nature. That is until one day a wicked witch cast a spell over them so that they no longer cared about the environment. ...
Our Land – Stop Ocean Debris! - Fisho and her family and friends are suffering under the weight of the increasing ocean debris, literally. This endearing story should make you think twice before littering. Sample Text from Our Land FISHO and her sister and brother were getting ready to go to school. After they finished their breakfast, their mum gave each of ...
Sirenia – A Book of Manatees and Dugongs - Manatees and Dugongs, commonly named Sea Cows due to their vegetarian nature, are beautiful, gentle creatures, inhabiting shallow areas such as mangroves and estuaries in the warm equatorial regions. Learn more about these magnificent creatures in this book, aimed at early to mid elementary (primary) school children. The book is released in creative commons and ...
Discover Your Changing World With NOAA Activity Book - How does the sun drive Earth’s climate system? How do the ocean, ice, clouds and atmospheric gases affect the impact of the Sun’s energy on the Earth? How have plants, animals, and humans affected Earth’s climate? How may Earth’s changing climate effecting plants, animals and humans? What tools do scientists use to monitor weather, and ...
All About Kiwi Birds - Kiwis are unusual birds with several mammal-like properties. This book tells you about the evolution of their unique features and where you can find them now. The kiwi birds are in danger and need to be protected. The author hopes to spread awareness to help save the kiwis. Spread the love
Drop by Drop Makes an Ocean – junior environmentalists in action - The pond in the village is so blue and deep and refreshing, that is until irrigation plans were put in place and a factory was built neraby which dumped waste in the pond. Now the pond was polluted and nearly dried up. The village children decide to work together to make a difference, with a ...
The Boink Mystery – Keep our planet clean - The Boink Mystery – On a school expedition, Aman finds more than he’s bargained for; A strange Boink Boink sound comes from a visitor from another planet, find out more and learn lessons about keeping our planet clean from this intriguing space alien. Sample Text from The Boink Mystery Aman was sure he heard it. ...
What Happened to the Shawl? Buddhist parable - What Happened to the Shawl? Buddhist parable – A monk approaches Buddha in need of a new shawl. Before he gives it to him Buddha delves deep into the situation of what happened to the old shawl. A story of reduce, reuse, recycle. Sample Text from What Happened to the Shawl? Buddhist parable One day, ...More Books From Storyweaver
Every Minute Counts - Adil is always late to school. This makes his teachers very angry. But why is he always late? His friend Paro helps him work out where the extra minutes go. Does he need to wake up one hour earlier or maybe a little more? This book was brought to us by Pratham’s Storyweaver platform. See ...
Meera and Ameera – Imaginary Friends - Meera and Ameera are best of friends. Strangely Meera is the only one who can see Ameera. That’s probably because she is an imaginary porcupine. Join the two friends in their many adventures real and made up. Sample Text From Meera and Ameera Meera and I are a team. She’s my most favourite person in ...
The Auto That Flew - A tuk tuk daily fights the traffic of Dehli, only to secretly dream of being able to fly. A magic water makes that possibility reailty, but is it all that he dreamed of? Sample Text from The Auto That Flew Arjun had three wheels, one headlight and a coat of green and yellow. He belonged ...
The Mystery of the Cyber Friend – Important lessons about keeping safe online - Shree loves using her computer for all sorts of things. One of the things she does is to chat with friends. When she has a tiff with a group of friends, she receives a new request out of the blue, and decides to accept. But after some time she senses this new friend is not ...
Malar’s Big House - Malar’s building a big house, but will she manage to keep her house standing? Find out in Malar’s Big House. Sample Text from Malar’s Big House Today, Malar is going to build a big house! “I can use these!” “My big house will be this high!” says Malar. “And this wide!” <End of sample from ...
Chiu’s Powers - Chiu sees exciting things that others cannot – flying rockets and fish swimming on the blackboard. Ajji takes Chiu to the eye doctor to find out about her magical powers. Sample Text from Chiu’s Powers Chiu is late for school. But she cannot find her red bottle. Is that her bottle? Or is it a ...
There’s a Hole in my Galaxy - In the year 2563 Maya and her friend Ava borrow the family space ship for a trip to Pluto. Halfway there they have a battle with a black hole where they are almost sucked in. Along the way, we learn lots of facts about black holes. Sample text from There’s a Hole in my Galaxy ...
Why Do Sunflowers Love the Sun? - Viveka wants to paint the sunflowers near her house, but they keep moving. Follow this story to find out the mystery of how the sunflowers change throughout the day. Sample Text from Why Do Sunflowers Love the Sun? Viveka wants to paint the sunflower field near her house. She looks at the sunflowers carefully one ...
Get Down, Rocky! - Rocky the Goat has got out and chased the rooster wind vane onto the church roof, who let him out, and how would they get him down? Find out more about what Rose, Amma, Appa, the coconut seller, the banana-leaf seller, the shopkeeper and the carpenter do to get Rocky down in this cute short ...
Eye Can See – From magnifying glases to telescopes - Eye Can See details a group of children’s visit to their parent’s laboratory and all the magnifying equipment they find. From magnifying glass to microscope, binoculars to a telescope, this book teaches children about all things magnifying. Sample Text From Eye Can See School is closed for summer. Every day Chanda, Tinku and Motu have ...Sponsored Links:
Note – if you sign up through these links, it doesn’t cost you any extra, but FKB receives a small donation, which helps us with our project to buy more FREE Hardcopies for kids who need them
All our posts are checked by Grammarly, the FREE online grammar checker (We still receive a donation even if you only sign up for the free account :-):
thanks! amazing.
A bit heavy text for young children, I think. But the illustrations are absolutely beautiful!
This book very useful for my son studying 3rd std.
This book is excellent! it conveys the message to protect nature. Very nice thought to implant from childhood to preserve nature.
amazing
Loved the book
An inspiring story! Well written and beautiful illustrations. It has given me some great ideas for science lessons and expeditions with the kids.