Secret Pool

Vernal pools are easy to walk past, since many people take them for ordinary puddles in the woods. Yet these temporary ponds support a surprising amount of life. Each year, rain and snowmelt collect in hollows on the forest floor and create them. Soon wood frogs, spotted salamanders, and fairy shrimp hatch in the water. Even when late summer and autumn dry many of the pools into muddy depressions, turtles and snakes still depend on them for cover and meals.

This book invites young readers to look more closely at the ground beneath their feet. A narrator who is a vernal pool guides readers through the changing seasons and reveals what happens there. Sidebars add interesting facts about the animals that live in and around the pools.

The book also explains why these small, easily overlooked wetlands matter to the wider environment.