Julia Rothman wrote and illustrated Nature Anatomy to explore the outdoors just outside her Brooklyn apartment. The second book in a series, Nature Anatomy is 224 pages of drawings, paintings and hand-drawn lettering. Rothman worked with outdoors enthusiast John Niekrasz to find the most compelling facts and information about the wildlife you can find just outside your backyard. She took photos, collected samples and researched field guides. The book covers more general earth science topics—like how mountains form or why all snowflakes are different—to details such as the names of all the parts of an ant or a guide to mushrooms you might come across on a hike. “From working on this book, I learned how complex everything is,” Rothman writes. “Before, a leaf was just a leaf. Now I look at the shape of its edge, the vein pattern, how the different parts help the growth, how it contributes to the whole tree and why it fell to the ground where I picked it up. Everything has a much bigger story.”