Bookology Magazine

Connecting with Nature

Last Child in the WoodsJour­nal­ist and author Richard Louv coined the term Nature-Deficit Dis­or­der in 2005 with the pub­li­ca­tion of Last Child in the Woods: Sav­ing Our Chil­dren from Nature-Deficit Dis­or­der. The phrase is not a med­ical diag­no­sis but rather “a descrip­tion of the human costs of alien­ation from nature.”1 While expe­ri­ences in the nat­ur­al world are ben­e­fi­cial to both chil­dren and adults, they are espe­cial­ly cru­cial for young peo­ple: “The research strong­ly sug­gests that time in nature can help many chil­dren learn to build con­fi­dence in them­selves, calm them­selves, and focus.”2 

Increas­ing screen time and dis­ap­pear­ing open spaces con­tribute to a grow­ing dis­con­nect with nature, com­pro­mis­ing the restora­tive pow­er that spend­ing time out­doors can offer. As an anti­dote, pic­ture books can serve as a bridge from indoors to out. This selec­tion of Calde­cott Hon­or books invites read­ers to explore and appre­ci­ate the nat­ur­al world.

GreenGreen is both the title and sub­ject of author-illus­tra­tor Lau­ra Vac­caro Seeger’s 2013 Calde­cott Hon­or book. Lush acrylic paint­ings3 in a mix of naïve and real­is­tic styles accom­pa­ny four rhyming qua­trains. Each full-bleed dou­ble-page spread fea­tures a spe­cif­ic hue and an object, usu­al­ly in nature, that embod­ies that col­or, from for­est green and lime green to kha­ki green (lizard) and slow green (inch­worm). Seeger employs care­ful­ly con­struct­ed die-cuts on all but the first and last pages “[con­nect­ing] each paint­ing to the one before and the one after.”4 to show “how every­thing in our envi­ron­ment is con­nect­ed.”5 The die-cuts encour­age read­ers to linger on the pages and to flip for­ward and back­ward to find new trea­sures and sur­pris­es. Rich brown end­pa­pers evoke the soil, anoth­er con­nec­tion to nature.

Green
illus­tra­tion © Lau­ra Vac­caro Seeger, from Green, writ­ten by Lau­ra Vac­caro Seeger, Roar­ing Brook Press, 2012

The author-illus­tra­tor recounts how edi­tor Neal Porter sug­gest­ed the idea for the book with the prompt, “I want you to write a book called Green.” but didn’t elab­o­rate fur­ther.6 Seeger knew she want­ed to approach “green as an envi­ron­men­tal con­cept, but the over­whelm­ing chal­lenge was to achieve this with­out didac­ti­cism.”7 After start­ing and set­ting the project aside a few times, she final­ly for­mu­lat­ed the con­cept to build a book about a “sim­ple poem about the col­or green…in which the envi­ron­men­tal issue could be addressed in a sub­tle yet pow­er­ful way”8 She accom­plish­es this goal with Green, a work acces­si­ble to a wide range of readers.

Outside InAnoth­er intro­spec­tive book with a pow­er­ful mes­sage is Out­side In, a 2021 Calde­cott Hon­or book writ­ten by Deb­o­rah Under­wood and illus­trat­ed by Cindy Der­by. Here, a young pro­tag­o­nist spends much of the book inside her home yet dis­cov­ers Out­side all around her. She uses all of her sens­es to expe­ri­ence ele­ments of the nat­ur­al world, from “flash­es at the win­dow” to “chirps and rus­tles, and tap-taps on the roof” to “the warm weight of our cats and the rough fur of our dogs.” Out­side also “steals inside” with a “tiny snail on kale” and water from the faucet. Final­ly, when Out­side beck­ons to the girl, she and her cat ven­ture out­doors into a resplen­dent land­scape filled with flo­ra and fau­na. The book guides read­ers to look more care­ful­ly for signs of nature in indoor spaces, pro­vid­ing a jump­ing off point for dis­cus­sion, writ­ing, or drawing.

Outside In
illus­tra­tion © Cindy Der­by, Out­side In, writ­ten by Deb­o­rah Under­wood, Houghton Mif­flin Har­court, 2020

The spare, evoca­tive text is paired with Derby’s ethe­re­al water­col­or and pow­dered graphite illus­tra­tions.9 Amid the most­ly full-bleed spreads are a few illus­tra­tions with neg­a­tive white space, which allow read­ers to pause, par­tic­u­lar­ly near the end when “Out­side waits…” Water­col­ors add a sense of com­fort and whim­sey, with broad swaths of mut­ed back­ground hues, col­or­ful splat­tered tex­tures, and fan­ci­ful trees and plants.  Indeed, the illus­tra­tor invites the Out­side In by cre­at­ing some “imper­fect, expres­sive lines”10 with dried flower stems and thread soaked in ink,11 tak­ing the theme to heart. Der­by explains how exper­i­ment­ing with leaves and sticks as tools to paint with “allowed me to roam free and be as wild with my illus­tra­tions as my pas­sion is for nature.”12

Wonder WalkersIn con­trast with the ret­i­cent child in Out­side In, the two spir­it­ed chil­dren in author-illustrator’s Micha Archer’s Won­der Walk­ers need lit­tle nudg­ing to head outdoors.The title page illus­tra­tion shows them sprawled inside on a coach; the per­spec­tive shifts in the open­ing scene, where read­ers are out­side look­ing in, expec­tant chil­dren at the win­dow as they decide to take a won­der walk. Once their out­door adven­tures begin, so do their ques­tions: “Is fog the river’s blan­ket?” “Is dirt the world’s skin?” “Is the wind the world breath­ing?” They offer no answers as they con­tin­ue to scam­per about and inves­ti­gate their sur­round­ings. Near the begin­ning of the trek, they pause to reflect, “I won­der. Me too.” At day’s end, they return home and repeat this refrain on the final sin­gle-page spread.

Wonder Walkers
illus­tra­tion &#169 Micha Archer, Won­der Walk­ers, Nan­cy Paulsen Books/Penguin Ran­dom House, 2021

In this 2022 Calde­cott Hon­or book, Archer con­structs her bold full-bleed illus­tra­tions with “inks and col­lage, using tis­sue paper and pat­terned papers cre­at­ed with home­made stamps.”13 Work­ing in “real col­lage”14 rather than dig­i­tal­ly, she describes how the process has two dif­fer­ent stages. “The first is the spon­ta­neous and free­ing stage of cre­at­ing a sup­ply of home­made papers….The sec­ond stage is the detailed, time-con­sum­ing, tri­al-and-error work of find­ing the right papers, the exact­ing cut­ting, and the some­times ter­ri­fy­ing moments of final­ly glue­ing [sic] some­thing down.”15 The result­ing images are lay­ered, with beguil­ing tex­tures, shapes, and col­ors. In her com­po­si­tions, promi­nent hor­i­zon­tal lines pro­pel the chil­dren on their walk, while curved lines of the flower, tree limbs, cave, shore­line, and wind afford a respite for the pro­tag­o­nists and read­ers. The sol­id front end­pa­pers are a soft lime green and back end­pa­pers a deep teal, indi­cat­ing the pas­sage of time from morn­ing to evening. Archer deeply val­ues nature and hopes that her books “inspire peo­ple to get out­side, explore, ask ques­tions and won­der.”16

Grand CanyonAuthor-illus­tra­tor Jason Chin fol­lows this call in Grand Canyon, his study of the geol­o­gy, ecol­o­gy, and pale­on­tol­ogy of one of the largest canyons in the world. In this 48-page infor­ma­tion­al pic­ture book, read­ers first fol­low a moun­tain lion on the North Rim trav­el to Phan­tom Canyon at the bot­tom of the canyon. At that point a girl and her father take cen­ter stage as they hike up the South Kaibab Trail from the Col­orado Riv­er to the South Rim, a geo­log­ic jour­ney of over one bil­lion years. Inter­spersed with dou­ble-page vis­tas are par­tial-page spreads that hold large framed images resem­bling pho­tographs, with draw­ings of ani­mals and plants or geo­log­i­cal for­ma­tions around the perime­ter. In five illus­tra­tions, the girl spies a rock for­ma­tion or fos­sil (revealed in a die-cut on the page) that trans­ports her back in time in the next spread. As the two hik­ers reach the top of the South Rim, a dou­ble gate­fold reveals a breath­tak­ing view of “the grand­est canyon on earth.”

Grand Canyon
illus­tra­tion &#169 Jason Chin, Grand Canyon, writ­ten by Jason Chin
, Neal Porter Books / Roar­ing Brook Press, 2017

Chin uses pen and ink, water­col­or, and gouache17 in his real­is­tic, detailed illus­tra­tions. Water­col­or is his pre­ferred medi­um, “…a nice fit for me because it is unfor­giv­ing, a lit­tle riskier….[forcing] me to real­ly think through what I’m going to do before I do it….But gouache helps, it’s a lit­tle more for­giv­ing!”18 Water­col­or vignettes and dia­grams embell­ish the eight pages of back mat­ter, includ­ing fur­ther details on Grand Canyon ecol­o­gy, the Col­orado Riv­er, “The Sto­ry in the Rocks,” as well as an exten­sive author’s note. Hand-drawn and paint­ed front end­pa­pers dis­play a map of Grand Canyon Nation­al Park, while back end­pa­pers show a “gen­er­al­ized cross sec­tion” of the Canyon. In addi­tion to receiv­ing a 2018 Calde­cott Hon­or, the work received a 2018 Robert F. Sib­ert Infor­ma­tion­al Book Hon­or, both bestowed by the Asso­ci­a­tion for Library Ser­vice to Children.

Song of the Water BoatmanThis overview of nature-infused pic­ture books con­cludes with anoth­er infor­ma­tion­al book, one that skill­ful­ly weaves togeth­er poet­ry, prose, and illus­tra­tions. In Song of the Water Boat­man & Oth­er Pond Poems, poet Joyce Sid­man takes an in-depth look at ani­mals and plants, small and large, that thrive in a north­ern pond. Eleven vivid and clever poems fol­low the sea­son­al cycle of pond life, from emerg­ing spring peep­ers to a hiber­nat­ing paint­ed tur­tle. Each poem is accom­pa­nied by a para­graph with sci­en­tif­ic facts about the crea­ture or plant.

Artist Beck­ie Prange’s dra­mat­ic wood­block illus­tra­tions keep read­ers enthralled. The book opens and clos­es with full-page spreads of a spring and win­ter scene. Upon close obser­va­tion, the read­er dis­cerns that it is the same view of the pond, begin­ning with a beaver swim­ming to its lodge and end­ing with a fox walk­ing on the snow-cov­ered frozen pond as two deer look on. In the body of the book, a framed image cov­ers two-thirds of each dou­ble-page spread, with the poem incor­po­rat­ed in the artwork.

Song of the Water Boatman
illus­tra­tion &#169 Beck­ie Prange, Song of the Water Boat­man & Oth­er Pond Poems,
writ­ten by Joyce Siman, Houghton Mif­flin, 2005.

While per­spec­tives vary among the illus­tra­tions, from above, on, or under the water, Prange always includes a close-up of the poem’s sub­ject. In some images, ani­mals break out of the frame for a dis­arm­ing effect. She uses both strong and del­i­cate lines in the wood­block prints, hand-col­ored with water­col­or19 in a palette pri­mar­i­ly of blues, greens, and browns. A sci­en­tist with a back­ground in biology/ecology and nat­ur­al sci­ence illus­tra­tion, Prange strives to “make art that accu­rate­ly rep­re­sents the char­ac­ter and habits of ani­mals and plants.”20 The book pro­vides a great mod­el for young writ­ers and artists to dive into a dif­fer­ent ecosys­tem and present their find­ings in a cre­ative way. A younger audi­ence might enjoy pond life as pre­sent­ed in Denise Fleming’s play­ful rhymes and col­ored cot­ton pulp illus­tra­tions in the 1994 Calde­cott Hon­or book In the Small, Small Pond.

From land to water, from rus­tic back­yards to dra­mat­ic canyon rims, these Calde­cott Hon­or books pay trib­ute to the mar­vel of nat­ur­al places, per­haps entic­ing chil­dren and the adults in their lives to dis­cov­er nature first hand. Embrace this invi­ta­tion to grab a book and read out­side not only to nour­ish the mind, but to refresh body and spir­it, as well.

More Nature-Connected Picture Books

Goade, Michaela. Berry Song: New York: Lit­tle, Brown, 2022. (2023 Calde­cott Honor)

Har­ris, Shawn. Have You Ever Seen a Flower? San Fran­cis­co: Chron­i­cle Books, 2021. (2022 Calde­cott Honor)

McCloskey, Robert. Blue­ber­ries for Sal. New York: Viking, 1948. (1949 Calde­cott Honor)

McCloskey, Robert. Time of Won­der. New York: Viking, 1957. (1958 Calde­cott Medal)

Berry Song
Have You Ever Seen a Flower?
Blueberries for Sal
Time of Wonder
Works Cited

Archer, Micha. Won­der Walk­ers. New York: Nan­cy Paulsen Books/Penguin Ran­dom House, 2021.

Chin, Jason. Grand Canyon. New York: Roar­ing Brook Press/Neal Porter Books, 2017.

Flem­ing, Denise. In the Small, Small Pond. New York: Hen­ry Holt, 1993.

Louv, Richard. Last Child in the Woods: Sav­ing Our Chil­dren from Nature-Deficit Dis­or­der. Chapel Hill, NC: Algo­nquin Books, 2005.

Seeger, Lau­ra Vac­caro. Green. New York: Roar­ing Brook Press/Neal Porter Books, 2012.

Sid­man, Joyce. Song of the Water Boat­man & Oth­er Pond Poems. Illus­trat­ed by Beck­ie Prange. Boston: Houghton Mif­flin Com­pa­ny, 2005.

Under­wood, Deb­o­rah. Out­side In. Illus­trat­ed by Cindy Der­by. Boston: Houghton Mif­flin Har­court, 2020.

Notes
  1. Jill Sut­tie, “How to Pro­tect Kids from Nature-Deficit Dis­or­der,” Greater Good Mag­a­zine, The Greater Good Sci­ence Cen­ter at the Uni­ver­si­ty of Cal­i­for­nia, Berke­ley, 15 Sep­tem­ber 2016.
  2. Jill Sut­tie, “How to Pro­tect Kids from Nature-Deficit Disorder.”
  3. Asso­ci­a­tion for Library Ser­vice to Chil­dren (ALSC), The New­bery & Calde­cott Awards: A Guide to the Medal and Hon­or Books (Chica­go: Amer­i­can Library Asso­ci­a­tion, 2020), 105.
  4. Sal­ly Lodge, “Q & A with Lau­ra Vac­caro Seeger,” Pub­lish­ers Week­ly online, PWxyz, LLC, 7 Octo­ber 2021.
  5. “Pub­lish­ers’ Pre­view: Pic­ture Books: Five Ques­tions for Lau­ra Vac­caro Seeger,” The Horn Book, Inc., Media Source, Inc., 6 Decem­ber, 2018.
  6. “Tran­script from an Inter­view with Lau­ra Vac­caro Seeger,” Read­ing Rock­ets, WETA Pub­lic Broad­cast­ing, [23 April 2014].
  7. Lau­ra Vac­caro Seeger, “Green Process,” Lau­ra Vac­caro Seeger, LVS Stu­dio, 18 March 2012.
  8. Lau­ra Vac­caro Seeger, “Green Process.”
  9. Deb­o­rah Under­wood, Out­side In, illus­trat­ed by Cindy Der­by (Boston: Houghton Mif­flin Har­court, 2020).
  10. Shau­na Carey, “Why This Illus­tra­tor Makes Her Own Tools,” The Octo­pus (blog), 20 Feb­ru­ary 2018 .
  11. Deb­o­rah Under­wood, Out­side In.
  12. John Schu, “Calde­cott Hon­or Artist Cindy Der­by,” Watch. Con­nect. Read. (blog), 8 Feb­ru­ary 2021.
  13. Micha Archer, Won­der Walk­ers (Nan­cy Paulsen Books/Penguin Ran­dom House, 2021).
  14. Mar­got Abel, “New Illus­tra­tor Inter­view: Micha Archer: Daniel Finds a Poem,” Ezra Jack Keats Foun­da­tion, Ezra Jack Keats Foun­da­tion, accessed 25 March 2023.
  15. Mar­got Abel, “New Illus­tra­tor Inter­view: Micha Archer: Daniel Finds a Poem.”
  16. “Local Author Spot­light 2019: Micha Archer,” Jones Library [Amherst, Mass­a­chu­setts], Jones Library [Amherst, Massachusetts].
  17. Jason Chin, Grand Canyon (New York: Roar­ing Brook Press/Neal Porter Books, 2017).
  18. Kathy Weeks, “Q & A with Jason Chin,” Pub­lish­ers Week­ly online, PWxyz, LLC, 23 Feb­ru­ary 2017.
  19. Joyce Sid­man, Song of the Water Boat­man & Oth­er Pond Poems, illus­trat­ed by Beck­ie Prange (Boston: Houghton Mif­flin Com­pa­ny, 2005.)
  20. “Artist Beck­ie Prange Draws upon Biol­o­gy for New Book ‘Song of the Water Boat­man,’” The Ely [Min­neso­ta] Echo online, The Ely Echo, 21 May 2005.
Bibliography

Abel, Mar­got. “New Illus­tra­tor Inter­view: Micha Archer: Daniel Finds a Poem.” Ezra Jack Keats Foun­da­tion. Ezra Jack Keats Foun­da­tion. Accessed 25 March 2023.

Archer, Micha. Won­der Walk­ers. New York: Nan­cy Paulsen Books/Penguin Ran­dom House, 2021.

“Artist Beck­ie Prange Draws upon Biol­o­gy for New Book ‘Song of the Water Boat­man.’” The Ely [Min­neso­ta] Echo online. The Ely Echo, 21 May 2005.

Asso­ci­a­tion for Library Ser­vice to Chil­dren (ALSC). The New­bery & Calde­cott Awards: A Guide to the Medal and Hon­or Books. Chica­go: Amer­i­can Library Asso­ci­a­tion, 2020.

Carey, Shau­na. “Why This Illus­tra­tor Makes Her Own Tools.” The Octo­pus (blog). 20 Feb­ru­ary 2018.

Chin, Jason. Grand Canyon. New York: Roar­ing Brook Press/Neal Porter Books, 2017.

“Local Author Spot­light 2019: Micha Archer.” Jones Library [Amherst, Mass­a­chu­setts]. Jones Library [Amherst, Mass­a­chu­setts], Sep­tem­ber-Octo­ber 2019.

Lodge, Sal­ly.  “Q & A with Lau­ra Vac­caro Seeger.” Pub­lish­ers Week­ly online. PWxyz, LLC, 7 Octo­ber 2021.

“Pub­lish­ers’ Pre­view: Pic­ture Books: Five Ques­tions for Lau­ra Vac­caro Seeger.” The Horn Book, Inc. Media Source, Inc., 6 Decem­ber, 2018.

Schu, John. “Calde­cott Hon­or Artist Cindy Der­by.” Watch. Con­nect. Read. (blog). 8 Feb­ru­ary 2021.

Seeger, Lau­ra Vac­caro. “Green Process.” Lau­ra Vac­caro Seeger. LVS Stu­dio, 18 March 2012.

Sid­man, Joyce. Song of the Water Boat­man & Oth­er Pond Poems. Illus­trat­ed by Beck­ie Prange. Boston: Houghton Mif­flin Com­pa­ny, 2005.

Sut­tie, Jill. “How to Pro­tect Kids from Nature-Deficit Dis­or­der.” Greater Good Mag­a­zine. The Greater Good Sci­ence Cen­ter at the Uni­ver­si­ty of Cal­i­for­nia, Berke­ley, 15 Sep­tem­ber 2016.

“Tran­script from an Inter­view with Lau­ra Vac­caro Seeger.” Read­ing Rock­ets. WETA Pub­lic Broad­cast­ing, [23 April 2014].

Under­wood, Deb­o­rah. Out­side In. Illus­trat­ed by Cindy Der­by. Boston: Houghton Mif­flin Har­court, 2020.

Weeks, Kathy. “Q & A with Jason Chin.” Pub­lish­ers Week­ly online. PWxyz, LLC, 23 Feb­ru­ary 2017.

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