National Parks

National Parks – A Kid’s Guide to America’s Parks, Monuments, and Landmarks
By Erin McHugh
Published at Black Dog & Leventhal Publishers

About the book

“During National Parks Week, we reaffirm our need to maintain connections to the natural world.”

                                                                                                                             —President Barack Obama

President Obama has shared his views that it’s important for all of our country’s citizens to acknowledge the value of the natural world around us. National Parks helps families explore that world—the diversity, beauty, and history found in our national park system.

Arranged alphabetically by state, this fun-filled book tours more than 75 U.S. parks, monuments, and landmarks, from the rocky shores of Maine’s Acadia National Park to the ancient redwood groves of Northern California. Also included is a removable, fold-out collector map to house the 56 America the Beautiful commemorative quarters!

Through fascinating text and hundreds of vintage-style illustrations and photographs, ranging from digitally restored WPA posters (by Brian Maebius and Doug Leen) to original illustrations from Neal Apsinall, kids (and their parents!) will be amazed by the history of the parks and landmarks, geographical and natural wonders, odd and interesting facts, and much more. National Parks will change a “boring” family road trip into an awe-inspiring fun educational tour of America!

Written by noted children’s book author Erin McHugh, National Parks: A Kid’s Guide to America’s Parks, Monuments, and Landmarks is both a handy reference and an insightful look at our natural world. Readers will discover:

• The General Sherman Giant Sequoia in Sequoia National Park is 2,700 years old, 275 feet high, and weighs 4,210,000 pounds!
• The deepest rock layer in the Grand Canyon is 2 billion years old!
• The molten lava at Mauna Loa at Hawaii Volcanoes National Park is 2,150°F!
• 1,122 inches of snow that fell in one season on Mt. Rainier in 1971-1972!
• 12,000,000 immigrants came to this country through Ellis Island National Monument!

If you are one of the 13 million people who visit a national park or one of the 500,000 kids who join the Junior Rangers each year, this is the book for you.

My Thoughts

Here’s a book that all my homeschool friends in the US as well as the ones travelling from Canada would probably like to have when visiting the US National Parks.    This guide will keep your kids busy in learning interesting facts and information from over 75 National Parks in the US.   The table of content itself is organized in such a way that the National Parks are listed under their respective state – listed in alphabetical order. 

Each page contains the following information: the year the park was established, how big it is (in acres), the number of visitors per year, the campgrounds, the trails, some ranger fact, a bird watching tidbit with an highlights on a specific bird, as well as other information worth knowing about the National Park.     You can also discover the other National Parks you can found in a specific state when only one of them is presented.  

At the end of the book, you will also find the America the Beautiful Quarter Collector hard case which will allow you to insert the quarters representing various National Park from 2010 until 2021.    Each insert indicate the year which the quarter will be coming in circulation as well which allows you to know when you should keep an eye out for them.

Personally I wish that there was a map included in the page for each National Park to indicate where in the state it can be found.  Though, a big map at the beginning of the book sort of give the location of the National Park, a more precise map would be useful as well.

This book is a great item to have for homeschoolers whether you live in the US or travel to it.    Not only will it provide fascinating information on the National Parks but you will also have the possibility to collect special quarters for the next few years.

National Parks – A Kid’s Guide to America’s Parks, Monuments, and Landmarks is available at your favourite bookstore, even amazon.ca.

Disclaimer: Thanks to Thomas Allen for sending me the above mentioned product for review purposes. I was not monetarily compensated for this review. Please note that the review was not influenced by the Sponsor in any way. All opinions expressed here are only my own.