Reader: Kristin Fletcher
Occupation: Program Manager, Idaho Museum of Natural History, Pocatello
Book: Last Child in the Woods: Saving Our Children from Nature-Deficit Disorder by Richard Louv
I struggled for months to get past the book’s melodramatic title. It was the cover photo that finally did it. A close-up of a small child peering down his nose at a frog who is quite decidedly gazing back at him. Far from the heart-plucker I feared or a pedantic listing of societal ills, Richard Louv’s Last Child in the Woods details with honest eloquence the “de-naturing of childhood.”
When he writes, “Our children are the first generation to be raised without meaningful contact with the natural world,” he points to simple stuff--backyard tree houses, secret “Indian” trails in vacant lots, summer camps and fireside stories, and the wonder of a starry night. Louv suggests that children who spend time in nature learn to engage all their senses and may gain an instinctual confidence and deep wonder that in adulthood translates into psychological, spiritual and physical well-being. He reminds us of something we intuitively know, that learning, like life, is non-linear, and Nature, one of our best teachers.
Last Child sticks to the ribs. Not only has it inspired me and other teachers and parents to get kids outside, it spurred “No Child Left Inside” legislation recently introduced in Congress and “More Kids in the Woods,” a $1.5 million challenge cost share program sponsored by the U.S. Forest Service and its partners. Buy it. Read it. Make a difference. That’s what Louv did.
Reader: Dr. David Walker
Occupation: History Professor, Boise State University
Book: Cat’s Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut Jr.
I have been studying Bokononism. It is a religion of lies, but then every Bokonon knows it and that’s what makes it work in Vonnegut’s tale of a small Caribbean Island. The novel is full of metaphors and it is fun trying to recognize them all and add them together. They spell out a pessimistic view of what humanity is passing down to its children. It’s Vonnegut at his best when he tells the story of a medical doctor treating an epidemic and showing his son the ward and the dead bodies stacked up outside. He tells him “…someday this will all be yours.” Kurt Vonnegut died recently on April 7, 2007 and it has spurred me to read the rest of his works. Most have heard of
Slaughterhouse Five but fewer have heard of
Cat’s Cradle and even fewer
Deadeye Dick. All I recommend and I will continue to pursue his lesser known works I have missed.
Reader: Gini Woodward
Occupation: Secretary for Boundary County Historical Society and Museum, Bonners Ferry
Book: Saving Fish from Drowning by Amy Tan
An astute observer of human nature and experience, Amy Tan writes a travel narrative from the viewpoint of murdered art patron Bibi Chen who hasn’t yet passed to the “other side”. Rather, Bibi “silently” tours the famed Burma Road with her eleven friends. Her ghostly ability to intimately know each character each moment leads to rapid descriptive and oftentimes humorous character development.
Although I am less than half way through the adventures of this eclectic group of characters, I related early in the story to the character of Bibi who thoughtfully philosophizes “Passionate people create too many problems. They are reckless. They endanger others in their pursuit of fetishes and infatuations. And they self agitate when it is better to simply relax and let matters be. ……..But in art, lovely subversive art, you see what breaks through in spite of restraint, or even because of it. Art despises placidity and smooth surfaces.”
As in her other writings, Amy Tan exposes the complexity and unpredictability of the human experience in an entertaining and humorous story about good intentions resulting in bad outcomes.
