A Park Connects Us


Book Description

A celebration of urban parks and the many ways they connect us to community and nature This picture book excursion through a city park invites readers to discover how shared green spaces bring us together. Lyrical, upbeat text illuminates the abundant gifts the park offers. Vibrant mixed-media illustrations show a diverse group of visitors as they explore this communal space. Children frolic; couples wander; flowers bloom and birds zoom; friends and families picnic and play ball or simply sink their toes peacefully into the present moment. Meanwhile, rolling hills and green trees enfold visitors in nature's beauty. Encouraged by the sense of unity the park creates, the visitors come together for a joyful dance party and a march for peace and equality. Spread by spread, we see how urban parks are for everyone--whoever we are. This love letter to public parks depicts an inclusive and accessible space where community flourishes. Without a screen in sight, it gently hints at the adventures to be had offline and encourages readers to venture into nature and connect with their neighborhoods. Back matter provides a brief history of urban parks in North America and highlights park successes around the world.




In My Heart


Book Description

Celebrate feelings in all their shapes and sizes in this New York Times bestselling picture book from the Growing Hearts series! Happiness, sadness, bravery, anger, shyness . . . our hearts can feel so many feelings! Some make us feel as light as a balloon, others as heavy as an elephant. In My Heart explores a full range of emotions, describing how they feel physically, inside, with language that is lyrical but also direct to empower readers to practice articulating and identifying their own emotions. With whimsical illustrations and an irresistible die-cut heart that extends through each spread, this gorgeously packaged and unique feelings book is sure to become a storytime favorite.




The Politics of Park Design


Book Description

Galen Cranz surveys the rise of the park system from 1850 to the present through 4 stages - the pleasure ground, the reform park, the recreation facility and the open space system.




Frogness


Book Description

An exuberant frog hunt, full of mud, muck, and wonder, leads to a playful exploration of mindfulness As rain clouds bloom across the sea and the first stars wink, Sammy and Chocolate tiptoe into the marsh behind their house in search of frogs. They can hear frogs everywhere--croaking, chirping, clucking, burping--but though they poke and peek, wriggle and sneak, they can't spot even one. It's only after Sammy and Chocolate stop looking, flop onto the grass, and fade into frogness--no thinking, just being--that frogs come flying. Plink! Plop! Splatter! Splash!Too slippery and fast to catch! Written in lively, lilting free verse, Frognessinvites curiosity and energetic play while also highlighting mindfulness and the hidden rewards of patience. Lush paintings and buoyant language immerse readers in the rich atmosphere of a marsh at sunset. This joyful summer read celebrates being part of nature and soaking up all the sounds and sensory details of our environment, whether we are active or at rest.




Spying on the South


Book Description

The New York Times-bestselling final book by the beloved, Pulitzer-Prize winning historian Tony Horwitz. With Spying on the South, the best-selling author of Confederates in the Attic returns to the South and the Civil War era for an epic adventure on the trail of America's greatest landscape architect. In the 1850s, the young Frederick Law Olmsted was adrift, a restless farmer and dreamer in search of a mission. He found it during an extraordinary journey, as an undercover correspondent in the South for the up-and-coming New York Times. For the Connecticut Yankee, pen name "Yeoman," the South was alien, often hostile territory. Yet Olmsted traveled for 14 months, by horseback, steamboat, and stagecoach, seeking dialogue and common ground. His vivid dispatches about the lives and beliefs of Southerners were revelatory for readers of his day, and Yeoman's remarkable trek also reshaped the American landscape, as Olmsted sought to reform his own society by creating democratic spaces for the uplift of all. The result: Central Park and Olmsted's career as America's first and foremost landscape architect. Tony Horwitz rediscovers Yeoman Olmsted amidst the discord and polarization of our own time. Is America still one country? In search of answers, and his own adventures, Horwitz follows Olmsted's tracks and often his mode of transport (including muleback): through Appalachia, down the Mississippi River, into bayou Louisiana, and across Texas to the contested Mexican borderland. Venturing far off beaten paths, Horwitz uncovers bracing vestiges and strange new mutations of the Cotton Kingdom. Horwitz's intrepid and often hilarious journey through an outsized American landscape is a masterpiece in the tradition of Great Plains, Bad Land, and the author's own classic, Confederates in the Attic.




Subpar Parks


Book Description

**A New York Times Bestseller!** Based on the wildly popular Instagram account, Subpar Parks features both the greatest hits and brand-new content, all celebrating the incredible beauty and variety of America’s national parks juxtaposed with the clueless and hilarious one-star reviews posted by visitors. Subpar Parks, both on the popular Instagram page and in this humorous, informative, and collectible book, combines two things that seem like they might not work together yet somehow harmonize perfectly: beautiful illustrations and informative, amusing text celebrating each national park paired with the one-star reviews disappointed tourists have left online. Millions of visitors each year enjoy Glacier National Park, but for one visitor, it was simply "Too cold for me!" Another saw the mind-boggling vistas of Bryce Canyon as "Too spiky!" Never mind the person who visited the thermal pools at Yellowstone National Park and left thinking, “Save yourself some money, boil some water at home.” Featuring more than 50 percent new material, the book will include more depth and insight into the most popular parks, such as Yosemite, Yellowstone, the Grand Canyon, and Acadia National Parks; anecdotes and tips from rangers; and much more about author Amber Share's personal love and connection to the outdoors. Equal parts humor and love for the national parks and the great outdoors, it's the perfect gift for anyone who loves to spend time outside as well as have a good read (and laugh) once they come indoors.




Drive


Book Description

The New York Times bestseller that gives readers a paradigm-shattering new way to think about motivation from the author of When: The Scientific Secrets of Perfect Timing Most people believe that the best way to motivate is with rewards like money—the carrot-and-stick approach. That's a mistake, says Daniel H. Pink (author of To Sell Is Human: The Surprising Truth About Motivating Others). In this provocative and persuasive new book, he asserts that the secret to high performance and satisfaction-at work, at school, and at home—is the deeply human need to direct our own lives, to learn and create new things, and to do better by ourselves and our world. Drawing on four decades of scientific research on human motivation, Pink exposes the mismatch between what science knows and what business does—and how that affects every aspect of life. He examines the three elements of true motivation—autonomy, mastery, and purpose-and offers smart and surprising techniques for putting these into action in a unique book that will change how we think and transform how we live.




I Like the Sun


Book Description

Lyrical, rhyming text and playful, hand-painted illustrations invite young readers to share in the warmth of the shining sun. Includes educational STEM endmatter about the sun and how it helps humans and the earth.




The Argonauts


Book Description

An intrepid voyage out to the frontiers of the latest thinking about love, language, and family Maggie Nelson's The Argonauts is a genre-bending memoir, a work of "autotheory" offering fresh, fierce, and timely thinking about desire, identity, and the limitations and possibilities of love and language. It binds an account of Nelson's relationship with her partner and a journey to and through a pregnancy to a rigorous exploration of sexuality, gender, and "family." An insistence on radical individual freedom and the value of caretaking becomes the rallying cry for this thoughtful, unabashed, uncompromising book.




Connection


Book Description

The power and importance of storytelling is now widely accepted, but this book goes further to focus on storymaking. CONNECTION brings together a former scientist, a story consultant, and an improv actor to give you the critical thinking of science combined with a century of Hollywood knowledge in the creation and shaping of stories. The material is relevant to lawyers, politicians, public health workers, educators, activists-- everyone. In today's "Twitterfied" world, CONNECTION provides the narrative tools for effective communication.




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