What is a Native Plant Magic Book?
Pacific Northwest Native Plant Magic Books use art to highlight the relationships between native plants and animals. Designed by Lucia Harrison, each book features drawings of a native plant during different seasons. Each book also contains a hidden pocket — the book’s “magic feature”– that holds information about the focal plant and the animals that depend upon it. A printable black and white version of each book allows you to hand color images and then write about the plant/animal relationships using this website’s Plant and Animal Image Libraries. You can also print a color version of each book that shows Lucia Harrison’s hand coloring and research notes. You can download the materials to make all of the books for free (for educational non-commercial purposes). https://sites.evergreen.edu/nativeplantmagicbook/magic-book-download/
Goals of the Project:
Lucia Harrison developed the Pacific Northwest Native Plant Magic Book Project to help you:
- Appreciate the beauty of Pacific Northwest native plants and animals using a hands-on art activity.
- Learn about the life-giving connections among selected native plants and animals.
- Learn about selected native plant life cycles in the Pacific Northwest climate through seasonal changes: bud burst, leafing, flowering, and fruiting.
- Learn how to find information on-line about Northwest native plants and animals.
- Learn the common, Lushootseed (Coast Salish Indigenous), and scientific names of Pacific Northwest native plants and animals.
- Learn, through art and hand-coloring, the identifying characteristics of selected native plants and animals.
- Learn how to make the Magic Book accordion-fold structure.
- Become inspired to grow your own native plants at home and in your community.
This site allows you to
- Download pages needed to make the Native Plant Magic Books for educational non-commercial purposes for free. https://sites.evergreen.edu/nativeplantmagicbook/magic-book-download/
- Read or download book assembly instructions.
- See photos of selected native plants that show seasonal changes like budding, leafing, flowering, and fruiting.
- See photo references of animals that depend on native plants
- Find further resources for learning about how to identify and help plants and animals native to the Pacific Northwest.
Who are the target audiences?
- Elementary and middle-school teachers and students.
- Environmental educators and students.
- Parents and children.
- Organizations such as the Washington State Native Plant Society that staff tables at public events.
- Businesses that sell native plants who wish to distribute free information about available plants.