By Erin Wood
“Take a minute to look and listen to the world around you because you never know what you will discover,” says Cathy Melvin, a resident of Hensley, Arkansas, and author and illustrator of the children’s book Cypress Knees and Tupelo Trees: Discovering Plants and Animals of the Swamp.
Released on Earth Day, April 22, it introduces readers to nearly 50 plants and animals living alongside two majestic giants of the swamp, Cypress and Water Tupelo Tree.
Arkansans may not think first of our state’s swamps when considering its topography, but Melvin and her son adopted the Lorance Creek natural area during the pandemic, opening their eyes to this habitat located just off Exit 9 on Hwy I-530.
“Adopting the natural area gave my family the opportunity to slow down and learn about the swamp ecosystem. It provided me with inspiration to dust off my paint brushes and scissors and create collages of the plants and animals that made the swamp special to us,” Melvin said.
Melvin’s colorful painted collages will remind some of Eric Carle’s in The Very Hungry Caterpillar, and they are accompanied by lively rhyme. Readers can look and listen for the swamp’s fascinating diversity as they search for aquatic snail snacks with the Red Swamp Crayfish, glide alongside the swift-swimming shadows of slender Blackspotted Topminnows, sway in the breeze with the catkins of Smooth Alders, jump from the Wood Duck’s nest with day-old ducklings, and take flight with Prothonotary Warbler as he climbs toward the sky like the bright trumpet-shaped flowers of Crossvine.
Cypress Knees and Tupelo Trees is available in hardback at etaliapress.com (take 10% off with code SPRINGMAG10) as well as at local and national retailers.
Hot Springs native, Erin Wood is a writer, editor, and publisher in Little Rock. She owns and runs (www.etaliapress.com). Wood is author of “Women Make Arkansas: Conversations With 50 Creatives” (April 2019) and editor of and a contributor to “Scars: An Anthology” (2015).Editor’s note: To learn more about Lorance Creek and other Natural Areas in Arkansas visit www.arkansasheritage.com/arkansas-natural-heritage/naturalareas/find-a-natural-area.
