Food Not Lawns: How to Turn Your Yard into a Garden And Your Neighborhood into a Community

Book Description

Gardening can be a political act. Creativity, fulfillment, connection, revolution--it all begins when we get our hands in the dirt. Food Not Lawns combines practical wisdom on ecological design and community-building with a fresh, green perspective on an age-old subject. Activist and urban gardener Heather Flores shares her nine-step permaculture design to help farmsteaders and city dwellers alike build fertile soil, promote biodiversity, and increase natural habitat in their own "paradise gardens." But Food Not Lawns doesn't begin and end in the seed bed. This joyful permaculture lifestyle manual inspires readers to apply the principles of the paradise garden--simplicity, resourcefulness, creativity, mindfulness, and community--to all aspects of life. Plant "guerilla gardens" in barren intersections and medians; organize community meals; start a street theater troupe or host a local art swap; free your kitchen from refrigeration and enjoy truly fresh, nourishing foods from your own plot of land; work with children to create garden play spaces. Flores cares passionately about the damaged state of our environment and the ills of our throwaway society. In Food Not Lawns, she shows us how to reclaim the earth one garden at a time.

Customer Reviews:

An inspired 40-something.......2007-09-04

Food Not Lawns speaks to my heart and has inspired me in my home gardening. I bought copies for two dear gardening friends who are in their 20's and 30's, and they are also excited by the ideas presented in the book. The author takes a holistic view of community and gardening, of working with Nature as an orchestra of forces influencing each other and working collectively together. Heather Flores encourages us to think out of the box and some might find that uncomfortable, but I still think her vision and sense of hope is so needed in our world today. Share this book with family and friends!

completely false advertising.......2007-07-05

I see that this books appears a hit with many reviewers, but I am unfortunately going to dissent. I was excited to read this book when it arrived and was subsequently dissappointed in the overall quality of the work as a whole. First and foremost, Flores leaves out a great deal of detail with regard to the actual work involved in any form of agriculture, be it animal husbandry, permaculture, or anything between. I say this not only as an avid reader, but also an environmental studies major reviewing the work for a class as well. Second, Flores' method of combining the topics of agriculture and social change is facetious at best, with no real segway from the former to the latter. In other words, this is literally two unconnected books sharing the same binding. Finally, and most disheartening of all, the work gives faulty advice at best, especially with regard to her advice on dealing with numerous aspects of gardening (traditional and permaculture), pending jail time, and conflict management strategies(with latter are potentially dangerous). I will also note that I resold this book immediately upon completion due to the above. Those interested would be better served to read The Good Life by Helen and Scott Nearing, or other such related books by other reputable authors such as Joseph Jenkins, Eliot Coleman, Louise Riotte, or John and Martha Storey. In short, do not purchase this book if you are serious about either agriculture or social change.

if you are over 40 skip it... so gen X.......2007-05-25

This is a very shallow book by the new generation of writers that find fault with everything done in the twenty years before they were born,
Its very shallow, big type and very preachy.
If you are interested in gardening, try Giaas garden, a much more serious study of permiculture.
In this rambling book, the aurthor boasts of not making over 8 k a year, but inherited the money to buy her farm!
I liked camping living until I was thirty, now I am 45 and really like my freezer and new stove.( yes, I have my own three hens and belong to a CSA)
I know a number of the original flower/farm people, and as they got older they liked having a few more comforts.

So this is one of the new gen X books, shallow to a fault. Nothing but sound bites.
the aurthor sems all hyped about third world living, but I am not sure she has ever been to a third world and seen how hard that style of life is,,it is easy to glamorius the distant!!!

Not just Gardening--A guide to Activism and Environmentalism.......2007-01-23

I picked up this book to learn practical application of permacultural principles applied to urban yard scales--and there is a wealth of such information here. However, I do feel like Flores preaches just a little too much about the environmental destruction and political problems currently plaguing our country. In my view, anyone picking up a book called Food Not Lawns probably is already well-versed in such issues, and Flores is essentially preaching to the converted. That said, this book DOES have tons of practical information, and I would recommend it as an excellent counterbalance and companion book to Toby Hemenway's Gaia's Garden.

Keys to change any reader can use........2006-12-14

For activist readers who believe activism is a political pursuit, FOOD NOT LAWNS: HOW TO TURN YOUR YARD INTO A GARDEN AND YOUR NEIGHBORHOOD INTO A COMMUNITY offers a different viewpoint, maintaining that growing food where you live is a key method of becoming a food activist in the community. Chapters advocate planting home and community gardens with an eye to drawing important connections between the politics of a home or community garden and the wider politics of usage, consumption, and sustainability. Another rarity: chapters promote small, easy changes in lifestyles to achieve a transition between personal choice and political activism at the community level, providing keys to change any reader can use.

Diane C. Donovan
California Bookwatch

Average customer rating:

Into the forest - seriously impacts how you view your surroundings
Poignant and beautiful
all time favorite
Very readable and well written
I can relate

Into the Forest
Jean Hegland
Manufacturer: Dial Press Trade Paperback
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Contemporary | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

General | Science Fiction | Science Fiction & Fantasy | Subjects | Books
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ASIN: 0553379615
Release Date: 1998-09-01

Amazon.com

Jean Hegland's prose in Into the Forest is as breathtaking as one of the musty, ancient redwoods that share the woodland with Nell and Eva, two sisters who must learn to live in harmony with the northern California forest when the electricity shuts off, the phones go out, their parents die, and all civilization beyond them seems to grind to a halt. At first, the girls rely on stores of food left in their parents' pantry, but when those supplies begin to dwindle, their only option is to turn to each other and the forest's plants and animals for friendship, courage, and sustenance. Into the Forest, an apocalyptic coming-of-age story, will fill readers (both teens and adults) with a profound sense of the human spirit's strength and beauty.

Book Description

Set in the near-future, Into the Forest is a powerfully imagined novel that focuses on the relationship between two teenage sisters living alone in their Northern California forest home.

Over 30 miles from the nearest town, and several miles away from their nearest neighbor, Nell and Eva struggle to survive as society begins to decay and collapse around them. No single event precedes society's fall. There is talk of a war overseas and upheaval in Congress, but it still comes as a shock when the electricity runs out and gas is nowhere to be found. The sisters consume the resources left in the house, waiting for the power to return. Their arrival into adulthood, however, forces them to reexamine their place in the world and their relationship to the land and each other.

Reminiscent of Margaret Atwood's A Handmaid's Tale, Into the Forest is a mesmerizing and thought-provoking novel of hope and despair set in a frighteningly plausible near-future America.

Customer Reviews:

Into the forest - seriously impacts how you view your surroundings.......2007-08-03

This is an amazing book. I became totally engrossed in the characters and their life choices. The ending was astonishing and perhaps not the way I would have gone, but up until that point, I began to listen to the news and see just how possible this scenario could be and wonder how I'd react. It forces you to look around at all you have and wonder what life would be like if you didn't have the most basic of modern conveniences. Great story - great book for discussion - I highly recommend.

Poignant and beautiful.......2007-06-16

Hegland writes with the ease of one who is a born writer- someone who makes language flow with grace, beauty and richness. Her story is relevant and important for Western culture to ponder as the continued waste and destruction of natural resources becomes common place and we no longer question the magnitude of loss. Prophetic and pragmatic, Hegland creates solutions to tribulations of place, time and person that we may find helpful, if not guideposts, to living through crises.
Tangible and poignant, Hegland's story could be our own. As an aside, it is interesting and refreshing that she includes homeschooling as a non-religious, but philosophical, intelligent, realistic, matter-of-life choice for her characters - a rare and inspiring find for those who teach at home. Hegland's book is a page-turning pleasure.

all time favorite.......2007-06-07

This book goes on my list of all time favorites. It is beautifully written, has a unique interesting story and great characters. It really made me think about how we live, what we take for granted and how life might be different in the future. I highly recommend it.

Very readable and well written.......2007-05-03

First of all, this is a very readable book. I voraciously consumed it. You quickly sink into the world that it creates: What happens to two young women, living at the edge of a forest in Northern California, if the social and economic infrastructure of the modern world gradually collapses? This is a book about survival and adaption, but by its geographical and cultural isolation is a pretty limited view of the world. I don't think that these sisters would make the decision they make at the end of the book if they were living in Alaska or Montana, for example.

I'm not sure the book does justice to the civilization (and social structure) that has been left behind, although I think it does an excellent job of chronically the wastefulness of our culture.

All in all, a wonderful first novel, not perfect, but left me wanting to read more of Jean Hegland.

I can relate.......2007-01-22

I am somewhat mystified by the negativity of some of the reviews, but I guess that's people.

As an American Soldier who just came back from Iraq (chaos), who grew up on the edge of a beautiful forest in northern Arizona, who tended to a rather large garden in childhood, and is currently experiencing emotional isolation due to my wife still being in Iraq, I can say that this story had a strong emotional impact for me.

I realize that not many people may be in a position to cry all the way through this book like I did. And there are always the fundementalists who reject it entirely because the sexuality falls out of the norm for a brief instant.

And I don't understand the intense criticism of the end. It seemed to me that they were simply making a commitment. It was ceremonial.

I really liked this book. If you think the electricity is going to shut off someday, forever, you might like it too.

Gorillas: Gentle Giants of the Forest (Step-Into-Reading, Step 3)

Average customer rating:

good intro for kids

Gorillas: Gentle Giants of the Forest (Step-Into-Reading, Step 3)
Joyce Milton
Manufacturer: Random House Books for Young Readers
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Zoology | Science, Nature & How It Works | Children's Books | Subjects | Books

General | Ages 4-8 | Children's Books | Subjects | Books

General | Literature | Children's Books | Subjects | Books

Readers | Words & Language | Reference | Subjects | Books

All 4-for-3 Deals | 4-for-3 Books Store | Stores | Books
Similar Items:

Monster Bugs (Step-Into-Reading, Step 3)
S-S-snakes! (Step-Into-Reading, Step 3)
Whales: The Gentle Giants (Step-Into-Reading, Step 3)
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Dolphins! (Step into Reading, Step 3) (Step into Reading)

ASIN: 0679872841
Release Date: 1997-03-18

Book Description

What should you do if a gorilla charges right at you? Run away, climb a tree, or make a scary face? Find out the surprising answer and much more in this nonfiction book packed with amazing gorilla facts.

Customer Reviews:

good intro for kids.......2001-02-21

I love gorillas and all things related to them. I bought this book even though I don't have kids! I liked that it discusses Dian Fossey and the mountain gorillas, as well as world-famous Koko. I was just so pleased to see gorillas described as they truly are. A book like this could inspire children to want to help save these gentle giants. I sure hope so, anyway.

Places of Last Resort: The Expansion of the Farm Frontier into the Boreal Forest in Canada, C. 1910-1940

Average customer rating:

Places of Last Resort: The Expansion of the Farm Frontier into the Boreal Forest in Canada, C. 1910-1940
J. David Wood
Manufacturer: McGill-Queen's University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Science | Subjects | Books

History of Technology | Technology | Science | Subjects | Books

All Titles | Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007 | Stores | Books
ASIN: 0773530398

Book Description

Tens of thousands of Canadian settlers faced the challenge of starting a farm in the near North in the 1910s, twenties, and thirties. In Places of Last Resort David Wood documents this last significant expansion of farm settlement in Canada and the often painful process of discovering that there was a limit to how far traditional farming could go. Northerly locations were desperately sought out after more accessible land further south was taken up. Wood identifies the demographic characteristics of the surging population of land-seekers, showing how some aspects echoed those of earlier settlers. The northern settlers of the interwar years grappled with demanding conditions, which required new adaptations. They were supported in their efforts by politicians, bureaucrats, and religious leaders who had less than innocent reasons for endorsing what were questionable settlement experiments in unopened or abandoned areas. The book includes a series of gripping case studies to illustrate both the face of failure and what appear to have been the ingredients for success in marginal areas.

The Mythic Forest, the Green Man And the Spirit of Nature: The Re-emergence of the Spirit of Nature from Ancient Times into Modern Society

Average customer rating:

Highly Recommended

The Mythic Forest, the Green Man And the Spirit of Nature: The Re-emergence of the Spirit of Nature from Ancient Times into Modern Society
Gary R. Varner
Manufacturer: Algora Publishing
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Folklore & Mythology | Social Sciences | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

Reference | Social Sciences | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

Mythology & Folklore | Encyclopedias | Reference | Subjects | Books

Walking With the Green Man: Father of the Forest, Spirit of Nature
The Green Man Unmasked: A New Interpretation Of An Ancient Riddle
Green Man, Earth Angel: The Prophetic Tradition and the Battle for the Soul of the World (Suny Series in Western Esoteric Traditions)
Wood Spirits and Green Men: A Design Sourcebook for Woodcarvers and Other Artists
The Spirit Of The Green Man

ASIN: 087586435X

Customer Reviews:

Highly Recommended.......2006-07-13

Who is the Green Man? "The image of the Green Man is that of a foliated head, a face with vines and leaves sprouting from the mouth, eyes and nose, the hair and beard formed, as well, from leaves and twigs. The image may be stern and almost frightening, or a beguiling face peering out of a wealth of vegetation. The Green Man represents the creation of all plant life and its continued renewal." (p.85) But where and why did these images originate, and how have they evolved over the years?

This comprehensive and well-researched work is presented in two parts. In the first section, the author introduces the reader to the numerous spirits dwelling in the forests. The mystical properties of various trees are also explored as well as the legends associated with them.

In the second part, the reader encounters many of the gods and mythical characters who share several qualities of the Green Man. These include an affinity with vegetation, springtime resurrection, and abundant harvest. The author also touches on the interesting appearance of the Green Man in religious structures, where one would least expect to see this pagan figure. Many pictures of the Green Man in modern era architecture are provided.

The Green Man has been with us for several thousand years, but why does humankind keep creating his image? Maybe to remind us of our connection with nature, and our responsibility to make sure the forests and vegetation continue to thrive.

This is a well-written and well-documented portrayal of mystical forests and the Green Man. If you are interested in this enigmatic figure and what he represents, I highly recommend this book.

MUSE REVIEW MARK: HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.

Reviewer: ALICE BERGER, MUSE REVIEWS

Average customer rating:

Good generic overview of the rainforest

Journey into the Rainforest
Tim Knight
Manufacturer: Oxford University Press, USA
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Travel | People & Places | Children's Books | Subjects | Books

General | Science & Technology | Teens | Subjects | Books

Ecology | Science & Technology | Teens | Subjects | Books
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ASIN: 0195217519

Book Description

The tropical rainforest is the home of millions of little known, exotic plants and animals. Unfortunately, many of them are threatened by extinction. Every year, an area of the rainforest the size of Britain is destroyed. Journey into the Rainforest is an adventurous but also educational foray into the heart of the wildest, least explored place on earth. Tim Knight, a naturalist with a long experience in rainforest conservation, takes young readers on a tour of "the wonderful surprises and hidden secrets" of the rainforest. Paddling upstream in a canoe, taking a bumpy ride in the back of a truck, walking at night to avoid the heat, and flying above the tree-tops in a small plane, we explore the rainforest from its floor up to the canopy and beyond. Our entertaining and knowledgeable guide takes us into the depths of the rainforest, where we encounter egrets and iridescent butterflies, flash floods and mangrove swamps, a blue-banded kingfisher and a "six o'clock" cicada, as well as geckos, barking deer, luminous fungi, moths as big as dinner plates, pit vipers and scorpions, the nibung palm, orchids, termites, and more. We discover that tree canopies form an impenetrable umbrella and that a stick insect can become practically invisible. We learn how to find our way in the forest, how to tap liana stems for water, how animals and plants survive in the forest canopy, and a myriad more things we never imagined before. The flora and fauna of the rainforest are captured in stunning wildlife photography, while lively, experienced authorial voice guides us on this tour of the "lungs of the planet". A glossary and index conclude the book. A real-life adventure and a hands-on educational tool, Journey into the Rainforest is a feast for the eye and the mind.

Customer Reviews:

Good generic overview of the rainforest.......2002-06-16

This is a beautifully done book. Readers are incorporated into a journey into the rainforest where they learn about preparations for the trip, human activities and life in the area, rainfall, life in the different areas of the rainforest, terms, adaptations of plants and animals and more.

This book is a good introduction for younger readers and is a refreshing change from some of the other works that outline specific areas of the rainforest (like the layers) and rant and rave about loss of biodiversity.

Although the book touches on the important points it provides a good introductory overview and introduces words, concepts, plants and animals for further research.

Book Description

This handbook of locally based agricultural practices brings together the best of science and farmer experimentation, vividly illustrating the enormous diversity of shifting cultivation systems as well as the power of human ingenuity. Environmentalists have tended to disparage shifting cultivation (sometimes called swidden cultivation, or "slash-and-burn agriculture") as unsustainable due to its supposed role in deforestation and land degradation. However, a growing body of evidence indicates that such indigenous practices, as they have evolved over time, can be highly adaptive to land and ecology. In contrast, "scientific" agricultural solutions imposed from outside can be far more damaging to the environment. Moreover, these external solutions often fail to recognize the extent to which an agricultural system supports a way of life along with a society's food needs. They do not recognize the degree to which the sustainability of a culture is intimately associated with the sustainability and continuity of its agricultural system.

Unprecedented in ambition and scope, Voices from the Forest focuses on successful agricultural strategies of upland farmers in the Asia-Pacific Region. More than 100 scholars from 19 countries -- including agricultural economists, ecologists, and anthropologists -- collaborated in the analysis of different fallow management typologies, working in conjunction with hundreds of indigenous farmers of different cultures and a broad range of climates, crops, and soil conditions. By sharing this knowledge -- and combining it with new scientific and technical advances -- the authors hope to make indigenous practices and experience more widely accessible and better understood, not only by researchers and development practitioners, but by other communities of farmers around the world.

Into the Rainforest: One Book Makes Hundreds of Pictures of Rainforest Life (The Ecosystems Xplorer)

Average customer rating:

Into the Rainforest: One Book Makes Hundreds of Pictures of Rainforest Life (The Ecosystems Xplorer)
Nicholas Harris , and Eric Robson
Manufacturer: Time-Life Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Zoology | Science, Nature & How It Works | Children's Books | Subjects | Books

General | Ages 9-12 | Children's Books | Subjects | Books
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ASIN: 0783547854

Average customer rating:

Not a children's book
Depressing
Confronting fear, anxiety, and worry
A Forest Full of Strange Trees

Into the Forest

Manufacturer: Candlewick
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Picture Books | Ages 4-8 | Children's Books | Subjects | Books

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The Shape Game (Boston Globe-Horn Book Honors (Awards))
My Mom

ASIN: 0763625116
Release Date: 2004-09-09

Book Description

A shortcut through the forest to Grandma's house produces some eerie moments — and some oddly familiar characters — in a strikingly illustrated tale about facing fears.

One morning a young boy wakes up to find that Dad is gone. And in this affecting tale from acclaimed picture book artist Anthony Browne, nothing seems quite right after that. When Mom sends the boy to deliver a cake to Grandma, he decides to cut through the forest, a route he's been warned not to take. Soon he's off on a strange, dreamlike journey full of fairy-tale allusions — a personification of a child's anxiety as reflected in the surreal illustrations of Anthony Browne. It's a haunting place where nothing is quite what it seems, until the boy — and the reader — are deeply relieved to arrive at a warm, welcoming homecoming.

Customer Reviews:

Not a children's book.......2005-12-18

Okay, while the author has good intentions, he's not in touch with children. Four year olds are not ready to deal with missing parents, issues of aging grandparents and subtle references to fairy tales our parents told us. This is a scary, spooky nightmarish story for a 4 year old. So, if you want your child up all night because you scared the dickens out of him/her, read this. If you care about your child, this is not a story for them.

Depressing.......2005-10-09

My 3 year old was given this book for his birthday and upon reading it we were distressed by its sombre nature.
Dad disappearing,mum looking nothing short of miserable at the breakfast table and then having no idea where he'd gone was beyond belief.After pasting "Come back dad" stickers all over the house the boy embarks on a journey through a forest.There he meets yet more sad children who are also looking for their parents.We found nothing in this book of benefit to a 3 year old,the illustrations were detailed but harrowing and the references to fairy tales cryptic.We want our 3 year old to be happy and enthusiastic about life so we have chosen not to add this book to his book shelf.Incidently dad does return but if I was mum I'd be suitably furious!!

Confronting fear, anxiety, and worry.......2005-10-06

Anthony Browne taps into the universal when he writes about a boy whose father disappears in the middle of the night, whose mother looks sad and worried in the morning, and then who is sent off with a cake to his ailing grandma's. He takes a shortcut through the forest, although he's been told not to, and meets several characters in the forest from well-known fairy tales. It turns out that he is part of a fractured fairy tale, himself, Little Red Riding Hood. The pencil drawings of the forest bring out the mood and emotions of the story, and the happy colors near the end reinforces the sense of relief that all the worry was not necessary.

This is a book you could read over and over, and that a child will pick up on her own to look at the pictures, because there are many details to pick up. Shadows are not what they seem (the one on the cover is a bunny rabbit) and on the Hansel and Gretel page, the shadow turns out to be Browne's kindly gorilla from earlier books. There are creatures in the trees, symbols of other fairy tales all around if you look carefully for them. There's even a one-legged tin soldier on the first page. Grandma's house has kitty ears.

This is a beautifully drawn and told story about confronting anxiety and worry. So many times children worry about what is going on in their grown-ups' lives, and they don't understand what is real and what isn't, and many times Mommy and Daddy are so worried themselves -- over a health crisis with an elderly parent, for instance -- that they don't take time to explain.

This book explains and puts it all into surreal fantastical perspective. I love picture books that work for both adults and children, and this one does wonderfully.

A Forest Full of Strange Trees.......2004-11-07

If you are familiar with folk tales you may understand Into the Forest. Anthony Brown has cleverly designed a journey through the woods to grandmother's house that sets up familiar expectations and raises more questions than it answers. The book invokes the anxieties of childhood, particularly feeling lost and wondering where one's parents have disappeared to -- a bit like a bad dream where nothing actually happens. The forest is exquisitely drawn in grey pencil. Every leaf is perfectly placed on the forest floor, while the wild trees tangle together above. The longer you look, the more you see -- strange forms and figures, many recognizable from folk tales, are hidden in the tree shapes. Although I am intrigued by this book, I would only sit down to read it with my child when I am feeling secure and ready to talk with him about his anxieties and strange dreams.

Into the Deep Forest: With Henry David Thoreau

Average customer rating:

Thoreau's Maine trips: consolidated, condensed & illustrated

Into the Deep Forest: With Henry David Thoreau
Jim Murphy
Manufacturer: Clarion Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | History & Historical Fiction | Children's Books | Subjects | Books

General | Ages 9-12 | Children's Books | Subjects | Books

General | Literature | Children's Books | Subjects | Books

General | Education | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 0395605229

Amazon.com

Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862), author of Walden, was one of the great American writers, philosophers, and naturalists of the 19th century. In this lovely gift book, Jim Murphy and illustrator Kate Kiesler create an enchanting tribute to a man who would have appreciated its simplicity. Thoreau made three trips into the wilderness of Maine, writing extensive journal entries and long articles about each trek. Most of the text of this book, only slightly revised by Murphy, stems from his third jaunt in 1857. The account begins as Thoreau and his two companions, Edward Hoar and their Native American guide Joe Polis, embark one misty September morning in a birch-bark canoe on Maine's Moosehead Lake. Escaping from Concord, Massachusetts, Thoreau welcomes the wilderness: "We live thick and are in each other's way, and I think that we thus lose some respect for one another.... [But then] I leave the towns behind, and life becomes gradually more tolerable, if not even glorious." Glorious, indeed. As the reader follows the travelers, they hear the call of the kingfisher, see the lake trout break the surface of the water, paddle into the Penobscot River, spy moose, and get lost in a swamp. It's an unsuspenseful journey, but a calming, evocative one. Kiesler's moody oil paintings beautifully capture the quiet wonders of nature, while her subtle pencil drawings of birds, plants, and explorer essentials decorate the right-hand pages. For those who aren't familiar with Thoreau, a brief biography begins this book--a fine, elegant addition to the collection of any Thoreau fan, young or old. --Karin Snelson

Book Description

Between 1846 and 1852 Henry David Thoreau, along with a friend and a guide, set off on four separate canoe and hiking trips into the deep forest of Maine. His goal was to reach the peak of Mount Ktaadn, the second highest mountain in New England. Thoreau, a noted natural biologist, recorded every sight, sound, and smell of the untouched wilderness that he fondly referred to as "all mossy and moosey." Using Thoreau's words as much as possible, Jim Murphy invites young readers to experience the thrill and adventure of struggling against rapids, pushing through dense forest undergrowth, and finally reaching the mountaintop. The highly illustrated format brings the wilderness to life, introducing young children to an important American and his writing. Author's notes.

Customer Reviews:

Thoreau's Maine trips: consolidated, condensed & illustrated.......2004-09-06

A five-page introductory biography of Henry David Thoreau is followed by the main feature: 14 double-page spreads representing Thoreau's trips to Maine. For the sake of this account, several excursions have been combined into one encompassing experience. We travel along as Henry and his companions paddle and portage their canoes through the wilderness. We share in their impressions of moose and the other wildlife they encounter. (The real-life hunting and killing of the moose has been thoughtfully deleted from this re-telling.) Henry's ultimate goal of climbing to the top of Mount Katahdin is realized by the end of the narrative.

Kiesler's paintings and sketches accompany well the text that Murphy has created from Thoreau's writing. This version is laid out in picture book style and is just as accessible for adults as it is for children. Consider it "The Maine Woods," illustrated and abridged.

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