April 19 to April 27 is National Park Week, a time to celebrate our national parks! At a moment when we’re seeing drastic changes to national park funding and staffing, there’s no better time to appreciate the robustness and diversity of our national park system. Find a park and plan a visit, make a playlist to go along with this year’s theme, or if you’re an armchair traveler – read on!
Take a tour through the highs and lows! National Geographic’s The 10 Best of Everything National Parks: 800 Top Picks from Parks Coast to Coast analyzes the best waterfalls, wildflower blooms, rock climbing, lodges, and much, much more. But not everyone appreciates the outdoors, and Amber Share has illustrated some of the most scathing reviews in Subpar Planet: The World’s Most Celebrated Landmarks & Their Most Disappointed Visitors.
Reading with kids? Learn about all 63 National Parks, from Acadia to Zion, exploring interesting animals and activities and delving into park secrets in Lonely Planet Kids America’s National Parks by Alexa Ward. Lori Alexander tells the story of how a devoted activist fought for Joshua Tree to become a national park in the picture book Cactus Queen: Minerva Hoyt Establishes Joshua Tree National Park. For chapter book readers, The Long Way Around by Anne Nesbet finds three siblings who must navigate the woods after a solo camping trip goes awry.
If mystery is more your speed, try the nonfiction book Mysteries of the National Parks: 35 Stories of Baffing Disappearances, Unexplained Phenomena, and More by Mike Bezemek. Or for a more edge-of-your-seat thriller, try Cold Burn by A.J. Landau, in which a National Park Service investigator and an FBI agent dig into a wide-reaching conspiracy centered in Alaska’s Glacier Bay National Park.
Artists and crafters are in luck with several guides. Pattern books take inspiration from a wide range of national parks, with projects at a variety of skill levels in Quilting the National Parks by Stephanie Forster and Crocheting the National Parks by Ann Krista. Trying to capture the beauty that surrounds you? Check out Molly Hashimoto’s Trees of the West: An Artist’s Guide.
Finally, of course, there is our extensive collection of guidebooks to peruse and check out.
~ posted by Andrea G.
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