ONE SQUARE MILE: An Artist’s Journal of...

ONE SQUARE MILE: An Artist’s Journal of America’s Heartland by Cathy Johnson (Walker & Co.: $17.95; 210 pp., illustrated, paperback original). The author of “The Sierra Club Guide to Sketching in Nature,” Johnson uses her notes and drawings to take the reader on a rambling tour of the Missouri woods. She points out animals and the physical signs of their presence--tooth marks, tracks, bones. She explains why she chose a particular medium to capture the poses of birds at a windowsill feeder, the swirling patterns on a pond turtle’s shell or the delicate flowers of Queen Anne’s lace. This amiable study of woodland micro-environments will stimulate the imagination of aspiring artists of all ages.