Children's Books Lose Touch with Nature

Lizzy Elliott

March 16th

"Children's Books Lose Touch with Nature"

(photo of Blueberries for Sal won't upload! so here is the link):

http://www.carlemuseum.org/blog/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/472.jpg

http://parenting.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/02/29/childrens-books-lose-touch-with-nature/?ref=environment

http://www.parks.ca.gov/?page_id=26685

http://www.unfpa.org/swp/2007/english/introduction.html

Purpose:

- A group of researchers examined pictures found in the pages of Caldecott Medal-winning books from 1938 up till today. They looked for images of a natural environment (as opposed to a built or modified environment like a house or park) and of wild animals (rather than domesticated or anthropomorphized creatures). They discovered that natural environments disappeared.

- The fall of the depiction of the natural environment comes alongside our increasing isolation from natural environments as a whole. Our world is rapidly becoming urbanized. In 2008, more than half of the world’s population was living in urban areas, either towns or cities. (found through further research). As the population grows and we use more natural resources, the natural environments will continue to disappear. With the economic crisis, beautiful and highly biodiverse state parks are facing closure. In California, 70 of the 278 state parks will be forced to close, leaving them unmaintained and unprotected. That means that this land could be bought and developed. (found through further research).

** Connection to HCI curriculum**- how media alters human behavior (as it relates to the environment).

Establishing an emotional relationship with nature as a child, be it through physical interaction with nature or through reading picture books and using the imagination, motivates children to help save, protect and respect their environment.

Discussion Questions:

The fact that our changed interaction with nature is reflected in our children’s books is not surprising – but should it be disturbing?

1.How will the lack of nature-filled books affect our generation and future generations of children in terms of their relationship to the environment? Will this fact contribute to a failure to protect it? Will they lose interest in the natural world?

2. It is an interesting coincidence that the Green movement has become so prevalent, yet children’s books continue to focus on man-made environments and consuming.

Do you think action should be taken to change the children book “industry” so that there are more nature-filled books?

3. In the future as a mother or father if you plan to have kids, will you make an effort to establish a relationship between your child and nature? Will you seek out books that include pictures of nature? Or do you think it has little to no impact on the child’s future actions regarding the environment.