Starred Review ALA Booklist (Mon Apr 01 00:00:00 CDT 2019)

Starred Review This love letter to America's national treasures is an important, informative invitation to experience and explore. Author-illustrator Turk (Heartbeat, 2018) offers spreads of well-known parks (Yosemite, Yellow Stone, Mesa Verde) and some lesser-known parks (Biscayne Bay, Olympic, Big Bend). Animals such as bison, bobcat, chipmunk, and elk, as well as physical features of the land (glaciers, mountains, rivers, volcanoes) are pictured. Lyrical free verse tells readers that the national parks are preserved for everyone, and when we visit them, we are home. Home, Turk says, is "a memory / of footsteps and wingbeats, / of sunrise and sunset . . . / a memory carried / through wind and rain, / echoing in canyons / carved way down deep / in the heart of the earth / and in our hearts alike." Margin-to-margin illustrations use pastels on black paper to create appealing views of select national parks; the name of the park featured on those pages is printed in the lower corner. Back matter includes an author's note, a map of all the national parks in the U.S., and a listing of the 27 featured in the book. Also included is a brief history of the national park system and a call to protect the parks.

Starred Review for Kirkus Reviews

From Acadia in the east to Olympic in the west, Turk presents an artistic and inclusive ode to Ameri

Kirkus Reviews (Fri Oct 04 00:00:00 CDT 2024)

From Acadia in the east to Olympic in the west, Turk presents an artistic and inclusive ode to Ameri

Publishers Weekly (Fri Oct 06 00:00:00 CDT 2023)

Splendid landscapes by Turk (Heartbeat) celebrate America-s national parks. In free verse that enumerates their natural riches, he pays homage to a number of parks (labeled in corresponding spreads) with the incantatory refrain of the title: -to the herds of elk/ trumpeting the arrival of fall;/ to the forests of twinkling aspen/ turned golden by the shortening days./ you are home.- The title phrase applies to park visitors, too: -to the child in the city,/ surrounded by windows,/ noise, and crowds... you are home.- In the text-and more fully in an author-s note-Turk acknowledges that the parks- establishment sometimes meant the removal of their indigenous inhabitants: -to the child whose ancestors/ lived on these lands before the stars and stripes/ took them as their own./ you are still home.- In consistently powerful spreads, the artist highlights the play of sun and shadow over mountains and canyons with fiery oranges, deep rusts and cobalts, and velvety black. There are 58 U.S. national parks, and 22 appear here, from Yosemite and Yellowstone to Biscayne Bay. It-s hard to imagine a more fitting testament to their grandeur. Ages 4-8. Agent: Brenda Bowen, Sanford J. Greenburger Assoc. (June)