Book Review: A Natural Sense of Wonder
I have read three books this past year that I consider to be game-changers; books that subtly shifted and guided the path I want to walk in life. These were books that caused me to stop to examine and clarify exactly what sort of person, what sort of parent, I want to be.
The first was Barbara Kingsolver’s Animal, Vegetable, Miracle, which redefined the way I look at food and moved me to live a more sustainable lifestyle. The second, Richard Louv’s Last Child in the Woods, opened my eyes to the importance of unstructured nature play on the human psyche. The third was Rick Van Noy’s A Natural Sense of Wonder: Connecting Kids with Nature through the Seasons.
While Last Child in the Woods is broad, an issue-based philosophical and intellectual work, A Natural Sense of Wonder is a personal compilation of essays touchingly recounting one father’s attempts to cultivate a love of nature in his children. An essay, Van Noy says, “is an attempt. This book is a collection of essays about our attempts to get outside.”
