Keep Our World Green: Why Humans Need Gardens, Parks and Public Green Spaces

Written by Frieda Wishinsky

Illustrated by Sara Theuerkauf

Orca Book Publishers

978-1-459838383

96 pp.

Ages 9-12

For release May 13, 2025

 

Tomorrow is Earth Day 2025 and, though Keep Our World Green will not be released for a few more weeks, it's appropriate to speak to the book's messaging about conservation and protection of green spaces and their importance for our physical health, mental health and community.

As long as you have a garden, you have a future, and as long as you have a future, you are alive. ~ Frances Hodgson Burnett

Frieda Wishinsky starts her book with a look at the history of green spaces, whether they be when our ancestors moved from hunting and gathering to growing their own food, or the establishment of gardens. She highlights particular historic ones like the ancient gardens of Egypt and Japan to the classic gardens of Padua and Versailles and gardens from the 20th century, and their value in protecting diversity and endangered species, and in the development of medicines and in celebrating religious beliefs.

From Keep Our World Green: Why Humans Need Gardens, Parks and Public Green Spaces, written by Frieda Wishinsky, illustrated by Sara Theuerkauf

Next, Frieda Wishinsky delves into green spaces of parks that are known for their beauty, from Central Park in New York City to Vietnam's Cat Ba National Park in Vietnam.

From Keep Our World Green: Why Humans Need Gardens, Parks and Public Green Spaces, written by Frieda Wishinsky, illustrated by Sara Theuerkauf

We may get solace and nourishment from these spaces but they also inspire creativity from visual artists, musicians, and writers. There is the famous art of Claude Monet, Frida Kahlo, and Georgia O'Keefe, and the words of poets and storytellers from Henry David Thoreau to E. B. White. Composers like Vivaldi found inspiration in nature as did contemporary musicians like Joni Mitchell and Michael Jackson.

From Keep Our World Green: Why Humans Need Gardens, Parks and Public Green Spaces, written by Frieda Wishinsky, illustrated by Sara Theuerkauf

But our green spaces, both natural and created, are in danger. From our use of chemicals to land development and climate change, our green spaces and their elements, like the bees and birds, are challenged. Frieda Wishinsky has some suggestions for young people as to how they might help based on how others have heeded the call for conservation and environmental protection. Whether you start small with cuttings or planting your own or a community garden, there is always something that a young person, and the adults around them, can do to help keep our world green.

From Keep Our World Green: Why Humans Need Gardens, Parks and Public Green Spaces, written by Frieda Wishinsky, illustrated by Sara Theuerkauf

Frieda Wishinsky presents a varied but comprehensive look at green spaces, whether created by landscape architects, humble home gardeners or the natural world. She celebrates their beauty and their virtues, recognizes their role in keeping us happy, enlightened and healthy, and inspires us to ensure their longevity and security. It's a big order to include all those aspects in a book on green spaces but Frieda Wishinsky, a lover of gardens and parks and natural spaces (see for example, A Flower is a Friend), gives readers enough to whet their interest and how to find more information. (A list of resources is provided.)

 

While many photographs of people and places are used to support the text, Vancouver's Sara Theuerkauf provides illustrations of people and places. She ensures that these green spaces are bustling with life, whether it be of the wild variety, of the humans enjoying the space, or of the green life that exudes its own spirit. 

Depending on where you live, spring may be budding out or imminent, and hopefully we'll all be thinking about what we can do to celebrate the green spaces at home and abroad, and to ensure they are with us for a long, long time. Frieda Wishinsky encourages readers to see the green spaces, to acknowledge their power and importance, and to take actions, even in humble and little steps, to make sure those much-needed gardens, parks and public green spaces continue to flourish and be lauded for what they offer.

 

Finding Moose

Written by Sue Farrell Holler

Illustrated by Jennifer Faria

Pajama Press

978-1-77278-244-8

32 pp.

Ages 3-6

April 2022

Sue Farrell Holler and Jennifer Faria first introduced us to this grandfather and grandson in their first picture book collaboration, Raven, Rabbit, Deer (2020). That winter walk, which demonstrated a solid and heartfelt inter-generational relationship, was the means for teaching Ojibwemowin vocabulary related to the natural world and for connecting between people and place. Finding Moose strengthens that mission but now the two companions venture out into the early spring when cold and ice give way to buds and awakenings and they can search for a moose (mooz).

From Finding Moose by Sue Farrell Holler, illus. by Jennifer Faria

As they walk, Grandpa instructs the child to be mindful of the noise he makes, the sounds in the forest, the evidence of life and more. 

Soft footsteps and gentle voices.

Quiet as mice and rabbits and deer.

With patience and attention, Grandpa points out moose droppings and nibbles on branches where the moose ate. As they walk and sit and watch and listen, the two are a study of differences and similarities. Old and young, still and active, teacher and student. And there is much to experience in the woods.

From Finding Moose by Sue Farrell Holler, illus. by Jennifer Faria

The child reasonably connects all that his grandfather points out with his own experiences. The chewings of the beaver (amik) reflect his biting of an apple. The softness of the pussy willows (ziisigobimizhiig) bring to mind kittens. And he notes that they are only finding only boy prints and Grandpa prints, not moose footprints. But after much scrutiny, including the spotting of chipmunks, geese, woodpeckers, tiny purple flowers and rosehips (oginiig), the two head home, accepting that today would not be a day to find moose. Or would it?

From Finding Moose by Sue Farrell Holler, illus. by Jennifer Faria

Finding Moose is as contemplative and instructive as Sue Farrell Holler and Jennifer Faria's earlier picture book. Sue Farrell Holler gives Grandpa the wisdom of age and experience and the boy that of fascination and connection. Together they experience nature fully but perhaps in different ways. A walk in the woods becomes a sensory adventure without the drama and high-octane action that can be tiresome and ephemeral. Instead, the two walk and look. They are one with each other and the world. That patience and calm is carried with Jennifer Faria's illustrations. Her acrylic paintings are often reflective of a Woodland Art style (see the flowers in the illustration above), emphasizing line and shape and keeping the story grounded in tranquility and reality. Even her choice of colour expresses that oneness with nature, playing the browns and blues with occasional flashes of red or a shamrock green.

From endpapers of Finding Moose by Sue Farrell Holler, illus. by Jennifer Faria

For a lovely early spring walk, learning about nature and being introduced to words in Ojibwemowin, join an Anishinaabe grandfather with his grandson to see how forest life reveals itself and search for an elusive mooz.

Raven, Rabbit, Deer

Written by Sue Farrell Holler

Illustrated by Jennifer Faria

Pajama Press

978-1-77278-136-6

32 pp.

Ages 4-7

November 2020

At its heart, Raven, Rabbit, Deer is a story about a grandfather and young grandson taking a walk in the snow. But simple pleasures and company are often bigger than they might appear, and that can be said for Raven, Rabbit, Deer as well. 

Though it is understood that the little boy is in the care of his elder, it's obvious that it's the child who is directing this day. He plops his boots on his grandfather's lap to suggest they go for a walk and he holds Grandpa's hand to ensure the older man's safety. Still, it's what his grandfather has to share that makes their hike all the more mutual.

From Raven, Rabbit, Deer by Sue Farrell Holler, illus. by Jennifer Faria

When they spot a raven, Grandpa tells the boy its name in English but also in Ojibwemowin, an Algonquian language. The boy takes note of the bird and what it looks like and the sounds it makes but just relishes making footprints and kicking snow. When they see marks in the snow different than their own, Grandpa says only, "Rabbit" and then "Waabooz" before the little boy is hopping.  And when deer appear in the woods, the child tries to count but, in mittens, it's near impossible. Fortunately, his grandfather can tell him that there are five waawaashkeshi.

From Raven, Rabbit, Deer by Sue Farrell Holler, illus. by Jennifer Faria

Still, when they see the tracks of a bird, the child correctly repeats the word for raven. He is mistaken however–the tracks are of a much smaller sparrow–but it's another teachable moment.

Finally the two return home, the elder to watch as the little one plays in the snow, until they both come in from the cold for cookies, a read and a snuggly nap together.

From Raven, Rabbit, Deer by Sue Farrell Holler, illus. by Jennifer Faria

Though Raven, Rabbit, Deer is culturally informative with its inclusion of Ojibwemowin, author Sue Farrell Holler has not created it as a picture book of vocabulary as much as a story of a touching inter-generational relationship. As grandfather and grandson walk and chat, they each give and take something different and yet together. The child finds everything about outdoors magical, recognizing the "snow shower that tickles my face and creeps cold down my neck" to trudging up the hill like tractors, making the letter "V" repeatedly with their boots, to the rabbit tracks that "look like two hot dogs with two marshmallows in the middle." The child sees the wonder of the natural world while the grandfather sees its reality, instead appreciating the wonder of his grandson's perspective. By focusing on the relationship and the sensory nature of that walk, Sue Farrell Holler makes Raven, Rabbit, Deer more personal and less informative than it could have been by another pen.

Similarly, debut picture book illustrator Jennifer Faria takes that heartfelt relationship and organic walk in a winter park and makes it into something warm and embracing. I defy young readers not to feel the cold and the damp of that walk and play and the glow of the hospitality of those cookies and fire. Using acrylic paint and coloured pencil, Jennifer Faria has given Raven, Rabbit, Deer a boldness of colour and shape but with an understated edge that complements Sue Farrell Holler's story and intensifies it.

 

In Raven, Rabbit, Deer, or gaagaagi, waabooz, waawaashkeshi as would be in Ojibwemowin, Sue Farrell Holler and Jennifer Faria have let us enjoy an outing with a grandfather and his grandson and feel the warmth of that harmonious connection between people and with place.

• • • • • • •

Look for my interview tomorrow with author Sue Farrell Holler and illustrator Jennifer Faria about this new picture book.

The Three Brothers

Written and illustrated by Marie-Louise Gay
Groundwood Books
978-1-77306-377-5
40 pp.
Ages 4-8
September 2020

 

There's something magical about going on an adventure. It's looking for the amazing and finding it. For the three little boys in The Three Brothers, the adventure is all the more wonderful for being together. 

 

From The Three Brothers by Marie-Louise Gay

 

Three brothers–Finn, Leo and Ooley–enjoy their nightly adventure stories about animals in forests and other wild areas, and decide to go on their own expedition the next morning. After careful preparations that include warm clothes–Ooley wears his bear suit–lunches, binoculars and a compass, they discover a thick blanket of fresh snow, and add pie plates to their boots as snowshoes.

From The Three Brothers by Marie-Louise Gay

 

Though they see a few birds, they are desperate to see some animals i.e., mammals, and anticipate what every noise might mean.

The forest was still and empty. You could almost hear a snowflake fall.

"I thought I heard a growl," said Finn, "...or a howl...I know there are some animals around. I can almost see them. Can't you?"

As they ponder where the animals might be, the older and wiser Finn recalls their grandfather's words about how the weather may be forcing the animals to leave to find food and water, and Finn and Leo discuss those taking action against climate change, without ever using words like global warming or climate. 

After losing Ooley and discovering him in a hollowed-out tree trunk, the three boys find a creative way to experience the absentee animals by putting their maker hands and piles of snow to work.

From The Three Brothers by Marie-Louise Gay

Marie-Louise Gay, creator of Stella and Sam, has always brought the wonder of children and their imaginations to her picture books. It's the wonder of what might be, what is, and what it might mean. It's seeing with open eyes and hearts and witnessing the miracles of the world. These little boys imagine the animals that might be lurking, even when only reading the stories and visualizing a bear, or a wolf, or a raccoon also listening to the story. In the woods, Marie-Louise Gay adds white outlines of creatures like deer, porcupine and bear watching the children amidst the colour of their reality. The landscapes of these children are a dreamy blend of home and the imaginary and all the richer for having both. (There is a surprise at the end as the two worlds meet.)

Marie-Louise Gay's illustrations, which have garnered her numerous awards including several Governor General's Literary Awards, blends watercolour paint with pencil, coloured pencils, water-soluble wax crayons and opaque white ink to create the evocative art of The Three Brothers. Her media and artistry conjure the inquisitiveness of children, light and detailed, colourful and full. There is happiness and watchfulness about the world and themselves that reassures. I feel joyful from the three brothers' imaginative play and closeness, and look forward to a snowy day when all children may seek out their own adventures.

From The Three Brothers by Marie-Louise Gay

 

Wicked Nix

Written by Lena Coakley

Illustrated by Jaime Zollars

HarperCollins Canada

978-1-443454698

163 pp.

Ages 8-12

October 2018

Wicked Nix is the foulest of fairies who lives in the forest in a nest in the old oak tree, ever since the Good Queen and all the other fairies left last Midsummer's Eve for the Summer Country.  Wicked Nix has learned to survive through some help from Mr. Green, a forest entity (or a figment of Nix's imagination?) and a little girl-people, Rose the Wise, who is not repulsed by Nix's looks. The gifts the villagers leave out, like a bit of cheese or honeycomb, to appease the fairies also help.

But now a man-people has shown up at the cottage in the forest and Wicked Nix is not happy.

I can smell him, or at least I think I can. Like all peoples, he smells like soap and taking baths and eating with a fork. Horrible. (pg. 3)

Anticipating the return of the Good Queen and knowing the presence of the man-people will displease her, Wicked Nix looks for ways to frighten the man-people away. But, unlike the other fairies, Nix has no magic and the man-people figures out the tricks used to drive him away and uses his own, including salt, iron and daisies, to keep the fairies at bay. Will Wicked Nix be successful in getting rid of the intruder or will the intruder succeed in making a home of the abandoned cottage in the fairy wood?

Lena Coakley has always spun a great YA fantasy tale (Witchlanders, 2011; Worlds of Ink and Shadow, 2016) but, with Wicked Nix, she's proven that she can write really great middle grade fiction. While Wicked Nix does not contain the angst we anticipate in YA fiction–because life becomes more complicated as you get older, doesn't it?–it delves into the worries of young readers: freedom to choose, belonging, and being loved. Wicked Nix may well be a tale of fantasy with its fairies and magic but at its roots it's a story of abandonment, home and finding connectedness, sometimes where least expected. It's also about perspective, both Nix's and the reader's, and seeing beyond the established and being open to the unexpected. And Lena Coakley has such a gentle touch with the voice of Nix and Rose and others that it's easy to empathize with their plights.

I'm sure she did not forget me, though. I'm sure she loves me. She once pulled a star down from the sky for me–that's how I know. She must have left me here to protect the forest. She must have left me here because she trusts me more than all of the others. (pg. 32)

While I encourage all readers to take the path through Wicked Nix's woods (follow Jaime Zollars's map at the beginning of the book), be sure stick to the road meant for people. Otherwise, there may be some nasty surprises in store for you and you wouldn't want to be taken by the fairies, since Nix probably won't be able to help you out.

Heartwood Hotel: A True Home

Written by Kallie George

Illustrated by Stephanie Graegin

HarperCollins

978-1-44344-393-7

163 pp.

Ages 7-12

July 2017

The Heartwood Hotel is enchanting and Mona is the endearing mouse who brings heart to it and this first book in Kallie George's new series. Though the Heartwood Hotel is a long-established abode for travellers in search of rest and safety, Mona stumbles upon it when displaced by a storm from her stump–hardly a home, just her most recent residence–and transported by raging water deep into Fernwood Forest.  She is given shelter for the night by the badger proprietor, Mr. Heartwood, in exchange for help in cleaning up after the First Acorn Festival, a rollicking event held in the ballroom.

From Heartwood Hotel: A True Home 

by Kallie George 

illus. by Stephanie Graegin

But when he learns of her sad story of no family or home, only a walnut-shell suitcase with a heart carved into it, he takes her on as a maid to assist Tilly the squirrel while the housekeeper Mrs. Higgins, a hedgehog, is under the weather.  Though Tilly is supposed to familiarize Mona with the routines and layout of the hotel, she is rather mean to the young mouse and Mona seems to make many a mistake as she learns for herself what to do and not do.  Fortunately, there is a wonderful cast of characters to help her out: Gilles the lizard desk clerk; Ms. Prickles the porcupine cook; Mr. Higgins the hedgehog gardener; and Maggie and Maurice, the sibling laundry bunnies.  But it's the guests like skunks Lord and Lady Sudsbury and Miss Cybele the swallow that truly recognize Mona's spirit in supporting the hotel's motto,

We live by "Protect and Respect," 

not by "Tooth and Claw." (pg. 11)

Still after one too many mistakes and Tilly encouraging her to pack up before she is fired, Mona departs the hotel.  Huddled in an old log, she learns of a planned attack by wolves. The little mouse rushes back to warn Mr. Heartwood and the rest, coming up with a plan to ensure the safety of the Heartwood Hotel and her new family of staff and guests.

"...as she explained, the eyes of the animals grew wide and bright with the power of a big idea, of a brave idea, of a brilliant idea." (pg. 136)

From Heartwood Hotel: A True Home 

by Kallie George 

illus. by Stephanie Graegin

How do I convey to readers the infinite sweetness and gentility of A True Home? From the warm-hearted atmosphere and compassionate mission of the Heartwood Hotel and its staff to the plot of finding home, amidst common foibles and uncommon dangers, Kallie George's text is rich in friendship, courtesy, diversity and affection.  That majestic tree's hotel is built upon a solid foundation of respect for all creatures and the natural world of interrelationships, though as in the human world some need to be avoided if one is to survive.  But even the wolves, though frightening to many of the residents at the Heartwood Hotel, have an inane quality about them, squabbling about their achievements and the existence of the Heartwood Hotel. By doing this, Kallie George makes A True Home a suitable read-aloud for younger children who will easily be able to imagine the Hotel with its miscellaneous accommodations (including the root floors with hibernation suites, trunk floors, branch floors, twig floors and honeymoon and penthouse suites) and star-gazing balcony and ballroom. Graced with the black-and-white pencil drawings of American illustrator Stephanie Graegin, Heartwood Hotel's first book, A True Home, has surely found a place for itself in youngCanLit by captivating and gladdening our own hearts.

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The launch for the first two books in the Heartwood Hotel series, A True Home and The Greatest Gift, will be held next week in Vancouver so, if you can, be sure to check it out. Details here.

Bear's Winter Party

by Deborah Hodge

Illustrated by Lisa Cinar

Groundwood Books

978-1-55498-853-2

32 pp.

Ages 4-7

September 2016

Bear has a sweet life of living in the forest on the side of a mountain.  He has trees, berries, water and fresh mountain air.  But he’s a little lonely. He is a bear, after all, and Deer, Beaver, Chickadee, Squirrel, Hare and Fox all run away when he’s around. Worse yet, he hears them talking about him and what made him so feared. With winter coming and his long hibernation sleep, he decides to take action, inviting the other members of his forest community to his Winter Party, depositing written invitations where they might find them.

Bear cleans and decorates and cooks and prepares for his guests.  Just when he thinks no one is coming, he sees them all peeking out from behind trees. It’s the brave Chickadee who scouts out the scene inside and encourages the rest to come forward.  Though still a little apprehensive being in bear’s lair, the animals are polite and they begin to enjoy themselves, first with the delicious food and drink, and then with a sing-along and dancing. Finally, Bear’s new friends depart, each with a parting gift, and he can rest knowing that he'll be able to welcome the spring with a forest full of friends.

From Bear's Winter Party

by Deborah Hodge, illus. by Lisa Cinar

Deborah Hodge, best known for her countless non-fiction books, has written a heart-warming story perfect for the onset of cold weather.  It’s a story of friendship and diversity and acceptance and risk-taking.  And, though the youngest may wonder why all the animals don’t just get along from the onset –and we as adults wonder this all the time about our own species–Bear’s Winter Party will open doors for discussion and repeated story-telling. Lisa Cinar, whose art portfolio is as varied as her lush illustrations for Bear’s Winter Party, uses watercolours to create colourfully textured animals and forest landscapes, as well as a finely-furnished home for Bear.  But it’s the style of Lisa Cinar’s watercolours that creates such movement and richness in her illustrations in which the characters are always ample and bold, not a shrinking violet amongst the group. By pairing Lisa Cinar’s art with Deborah Hodge’s story, Bear’s Winter Party becomes a party in itself, deep in colour and friendship.

From Bear's Winter Party 

by Deborah Hodge, illus. by Lisa Cinar

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * 

Deborah Hodge is coming to the Eden Mills Writers' Festival this Sunday.  Come and meet her and get your copy of Bear's Winter Party signed, ready for reading when it's time to hibernate (or party with friends).