You Are Home: An Ode to the National Parks

by Evan Turk

Sometimes sweeping, sometimes intimate images from 27 U. S. national parks showcase... read more

Sometimes sweeping, sometimes intimate images from 27 U. S. national parks showcase their beauty and majesty, while the accompanying narrative ode emphasizes the parks as being a legacy for all. “You are home” is the repeated refrain of a text that describes the park’s natural features (“soaring doorways of stone, and peaks that pierce the ceiling of clouds”) and inhabitants (wildflowers, pronghorn, fireflies, “resilient bison … prowling bobcat”). The diverse visitors who are shown at “home” in the parks include urban and rural, a child “whose family has just left its first footprints on new shores” and one “whose ancestors lived on these lands before the stars and stripes took them as their own: You are still home.” An author’s note tells more about his long history visiting national parks, and how he created the striking pastel-on-black paper illustrations, many of which were done on location. (Ages 4–9)

© Cooperative Children's Book Center, Univ. of Wisconsin - Madison, 2020

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