Companions in wonder : children and adults exploring nature together / edited by Julie Dunlap and Stephen R. Kellert.

Format:

Book

Contributor:

Dunlap, Julie.

Kellert, Stephen R.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Environmentalism.

Philosophy of nature.

Parent and child.

Physical Description:

xxii, 304 pages ; 23 cm

Place of Publication:

Cambridge, Mass. : MIT Press, [2012]

Summary:

Rachel Carson's classic 1956 essay "Help Your Child to Wonder" urged adults to help children experience the "sense of wonder" that comes only from a relationship with nature. It's clear we haven't succeeded in following her advice: eight-year-olds surveyed in the United Kingdom could identify more Pokémon characters than common wildlife species; and Richard Louv's recent best-selling book Last Child in the Woods identifies a "nature deficit disorder" in children around the world. But today a growing number of environmentally minded parents, teachers, and other adults are seeking to restore nature to its rightful place in children's lives. This anthology gathers personal essays recounting adventures great and small with children in the natural world.

The authors-writing as parents, teachers, mentors, and former children-describe experiences that range from bird watching to an encounter with an apple butter-loving grizzly bear. Rick bass captures fireflies with his children and reflects on fatherhood; Michael P. Branch observes wryly that both gardening and parenting are "disciplines of sustainability"; Lauret Savoy wonders how African American children can connect to the land after generations of estrangement; and Sandra Steingraber has "the big talk" with her children, not about sex but about global warming.

By turns lyrical, comic, and earnest, these writings guide us to closer connections with nature and with the children in our lives, for the good of the planet and our own spiritual and physical well-being. Book jacket.

Contents:

Machine generated contents note: 1.The Farm / Rick Bass

2.My Child's First Garden / Michael P. Branch

3.Tracking Our Way / Joseph Bruchac III

4.Tidal: Subtidal / Susan A. Cohen

5.The Toad Not Taken / Jeffrey S. Cramer

6.Of the Fittest / Janine DeBaise

7.A New England Childhood / Alison Hawthorne Deming

8.Child's Play: Finding the Green in the In-Between / Carolyn Finney

9.The Naturalistic Necessity / Stephen R. Kellert

10.Children in the Woods / Barry Lopez

11.Fathers and Sons / Richard Louv

12.Moving through the Landscape of Healing / Stephen J. Lyons

13.Belonging on the Land / David Mas Masumoto

14.A Field Guide to Western Birds / Kathleen Dean Moore

15.At Home with Belonging / Danyelle O'Hara

16.Animal Allies / Brenda Peterson

17.Grandmother, Grizzlies, and God / Brenda Peterson

18.Parents without Children: Confessions of a Favorite Uncle / Robert Michael Pyle

19.Raising Silas / Janisse Ray

20.Grandma's Bawena / Enrique Salmon

21.Mountain Music I / Scott Russell Sanders

22.Bowl of Stones / Chiori Santiago

23.Colored Memory / Lauret Savoy

24.We Are Distracted / Michael Shay

25.The Big Talk / Sandra Steingraber

26.On Being "Indian," Unsilent, and Contaminated along the U.S.- Mexico Border / Margo Tamez

27.The Prophets of Place / Stephen Trimble

28.Huckleberry Country / Michael Umphrey

29.Scorched Earth / Rick Van Noy

30.Children in the River / Gretel Van Wieren.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references.

ISBN:

9780262516907

026251690X

OCLC:

740250684