But in Suburban Safari, Hannah Holmes laughs at herself while celebrating the wild kingdom she explores.Holmes is a science writer who doesn't lecture. Witty environmentalists are as rare as shy politicians.

Her science and travel writing has appeared in publications including the New York Times Magazine, Outside, Sierra, and the Los Angeles Times Magazine. Hannah Holmes is the author of The Secret Life of Dust. Suburban Safari is a fascinating and often hilarious record of her discoveries: that many animals adore the suburban environment, including bears and cougars venturing in from the woods how plants, in their struggle for dominance, communicate with their own kind and battle other species and that ways already exist for us to grow healthier, livelier lawns. Science writer Hannah Holmes spent a year appraising the lawn through the eyes of the squirrels, crows, worms, and spiders who think of her backyard as their own. To some, it's a green oasis to others, it's eco-purgatory. (Mar.The suburban lawn sprouts a crop of contradictory myths. By the end of her year, Holmes has gently taught us that the American lawn is a pesticide-laden patchwork that's increasing by a million acres every year, that heating a house can produce five tons of pollutants annually and that stewardship of our own backyards is our responsibility. Science and humor serve as well-managed launching points for environmental lessons. With their help, she includes plenty of facts about the habits of common crows, insects, squirrels and even trees. That small mammal is just one of the many creatures to whom Holmes gives names and personalities, but she keeps her naturalist credibility intact by inviting scientists and other experts to join her in her lawn chair vigil. 'I'm a bit embarrassed to report that Cheeky has become the sun around which my world revolves,' she confesses about her resident chipmunk.

's Marlin Perkins and the laconic glee of Garrison Keillor. ) turned her attention to her suburban backyard, she discovered a community of wildlife desperately trying to survive in a sprawling world of 'Wal-Marts and White-Crowned Sparrow Estates.' Holmes manages to find signs of hope and humor amid the spread of civilization, and she reports animal activities in her yard with the fervor of Wild Kingdom When science and travel writer Holmes ( The Secret Life of Dust

Suburban Safari by Hannah Holmes