Her eyes scan the new landscape in search of a map a flower‘s cosmology ready for misadventures. Chinese Praying Mantis | Tenodera aridifolia sinensis
Author: Rick Lieder
Painter and photographer Rick Lieder has been creating fine art and conceptual illustration for many years. His art has appeared on award-winning novels ranging from mysteries and science fiction, to books based on the X-Files TV series, to Newbery Award-winning books for children, A Single Shard and Princess Academy.
His work has been published widely in magazines and online (Orion, Natural
History Magazine and others), and by HarperCollins, Random House, Simon &
Shuster and Farrar, Straus & Giroux and more.
Recently he has concentrated on a body of work centering on ordinary backyard wildlife. These photographs capture the unique qualities of light interacting with the natural world, including luminous photographs of honey bees and small birds in flight, glowing fireflies mating and hovering over twilight fields, mosquitoes with a belly full of blood, and new-born praying mantis nymphs emerging from their egg cases.
STEP GENTLY OUT is his new nature picture book for all ages, a collaboration between painter and photographer Rick Lieder and novelist and poet Helen Frost.
Three starred reviews from Kirkus, Publisher's Weekly and Booklist. Kirkus Reviews has selected Step Gently Out as one of four outstanding poetry titles for children to be featured on the Kirkus website for National Poetry Month, along with an interview.
A website with all the news, reviews and up-to-date information for the book, plus a book trailer: http://bugdreams.com/sgo/
The Wind’s Secrets
A songbird‘s wings carry the wind’s secrets, protractors measuring the sun‘s passage. Sparrow | Passer domesticus
Memories of Summer
The pull of a daisy strands a honey bee in orbit, wings reflecting memories of summer. Honey bee | Apis mellifera
Tangled Damsel
Collecting discarded shards of the sun, a damsel tangled up in a collision of light and shadow. * Damselfly
Spanning the Gulf
An ant spans the gulf between growth and decay, a tale of adventure and romance seen through my spyglass – Pavement ant – Tetramorium caespitum
Aerial Kung Fu
A starling in crane stance, kung fu master clutching invisible enemies, wind shredded through whistling talons – Starling – Sturnus vulgaris
Assassin Games
A katydid nymph at the brink of dawn, waiting out the threat of an assassin’s games – Greater Angle-wing Katydid – Microcentrum rhombifolium
Mirror-Image
A newborn mantis dreams her mirror-image, their glowing fates sealed by the gods – Chinese mantis – Tenodera aridifolia sinensis