California Illustrated written by Mark Drenth and illustrated by Abner Cardona, is a massive, oversized colouring book stuff full of California history and nature. There are sixteen different categories, with colouring pages, and activity pages. At the back is a sheaf of zany stickers to be affixed in different places in the book. The back cover has four different bookmarks to cut out. Though made of sturdier cardboard, I’d suggest laminating them for protection.
Characters of California has a series of caricature characters representing groups of people or unique critters, like Maxie Mammoth, Cecilhughes Allenscott the Director, and Gold Fever Freddie. History would more aptly be called Prehistory. This section looks at the time before the Europeans arrived. European Exploration covers the arrival of the Spanish.
Missions covers more than just the mission period. I think maybe a section label is missing? It covers the missions, the gold rush, statehood, the 1906 earthquake, and hippies, to which I must say, ‘huh’? There are two sheets of famous people cutouts featuring the likes of Robert Frost, John Sutter, and William Randolph Hearst.
Northern California Places of Interest and Southern California Places of Interest are pretty self explanatory. Northern includes places like the Golden Gate Bridge, Mount Shasta, and the SLAC particle accelerator. Southern includes Calico Ghost Town, Beverly Hills, and Hearst Castle. Lakes and Islands talks about places like Lake Tahoe, Lake Havasu, and the Farallon Islands.
Military Bases of California includes places like Camp Pendleton and Edwards Air Force Base. Animals covers the many types of wildlife to be found in and around California, like the Western mountain lion, the striped skunk, and the California sea lion. There’s a sheet of bird cutouts at the end. Insects looks at the bug population such dragonflies, the California common scorpion, and the Ohlone Tiger Beetle.
Fests and Parades discusses things like the Bay to Breakers race, the Academy Awards, and Dia de los Muertos. Vegetables, Food and Fruit looks at foods associated with California like avocado, garlic, and sourdough bread. National Parks describes California’s various parks, and National Forests does the same for the protected forests. These sections include places like Alcatraz Island, Lassen, and Sequoia National Forest. State Symbols is another pretty self explanatory section. Although… sometimes you don’t realise states have things like state fish, or insect, or reptile. Activities is the final section and looks at common California activities like surfing, skateboarding, and whale watching.
I loved the artwork in this book! Most of the pages are colouring pages with fun history or nature facts to go along with the picture. These fact boxes have bolded words of importance. The pictures also have amusing anachronisms meant to be jokes, like a priest with a sprinkle donut in his pocket, a prospector with boxers covered in hearts, and a da Vinci style glider chillin’ on top of a BART car. At the end of each major section is a place for notes. There are also the occasional puzzles to do- matching, mazes, word searches, spot-the-differences, and hidden objects.
There’s lots of bullet information packed in this book, about all kinds of things. I had no idea, for instance, that the state fossil was the smilodon. How cool is that? I didn’t even know states had state fossils. I was tickled to see our local Half Moon Bay Pumpkin Festival listed. It’s a great deal of fun, but it can get very crowded! I can see part of the Farallons from our little stretch of coast between home and work, if it’s a good, clear day. I didn’t realise there were several, instead of two. I also learned California has some species of camel spiders. My nightmares are complete.
This is the perfect book for getting kids interested in California history and nature. It’s a great way to promote further exploration of topics. Take those camel spiders, for instance. I went researching, and learned they are actually neither spiders or scorpions, but a different type of arachnid. That was kinda neat. Still the stuff of my nightmares, though. I turned this book over to my cubs, who are enjoying it. I have a degree in anthropology, part of which is a concentration in North American archaeology. The early history section had them coming back to me to learn more, and ask questions.
*****This book was reviewed for the San Francisco Book Review.
