Last child in the woods: Saving our children from Nature-Deficit Disorder

I’d grabbed this copy off the gift shelf at the library at least three years ago meaning to get to it someday as the title spoke to a concern I had long had about children growing up today and our own grandchildren in particular.  They live in a new subdivision in Texas, not long removed from being an open pasture. Outside their house are only a couple of young trees in a small fenced in yard and a play structure under the baking sun.  A rec center down the road offers a bigger play area and a nice pool.  But where I’d love to see Zack and Emma explore and play, safely of course, is down by the little stream that runs at the end of their block.  There are plants and little animals, tracks and fossils.  Like so many kids, much of what they know about the natural world is what they see on TV programs.  The book points out the children know more about the dangers to far-away rain forests than the environmental challenges in their own part of the world.  Parents are fearful about letting children play outside unattended.  This book reinforced my belief that a great deal is lost when children have little interaction with nature and offers some suggestions as to how to reverse this trend.  356 pp.