Uncommon Encounters in the Wild
This book is a collection of my own encounters, staring at animals for as long as they would stay. The stories range from the Arctic to Central America, from Arizona to Manhattan. From a praying mantis to a grizzly, jaguar to a hummingbird.
There is a world going on around us that we rarely see. Animals are speaking in their varieties of languages and codes, scents and postures. These stories are my window into that world. They are the result of staying very still, or from following tracks, or moving as quietly as possible.
I recommend reading the book from one random chapter to another, maybe putting days or weeks between each reading. That is how the stories came to me, sudden and startling.
People magazine: "Reflective but not romanticized, Dialogues is a quietly seductive ode to the power of mindfulness."
Publisher's Weekly, starred review: "Childs's captivating essays, rich in sensuous imagery (the porcupine "looks like a mop, a bundle of ponderosa pine needles, a mobile hairstyle"), are hauntingly beautiful and replete with evocative observations of animal life."
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