This Book Was a Tree: Ideas, Adventures, and Inspiration for Rediscovering the Natural World

(Paperback)

Publishing Details

Classifications

Physical Properties

Description

At no time in human history have we been more disconnected with what lies outside our front doors. Within just a century, our relationship with our surroundings has transformed from one of exploration to one of disassociation. In THIS BOOK WAS A TREE, science teacher Marcie Cuff issues a call for a new era of pioneers - strong-minded, clever, crafty, mud pie-making, cartle-building individuals committed to examining the natural world and deciphering nature's perplexing puzzles. Within each chapter, readers will discover a principle for reconnecting with the natural world around them, from learning to be still to discovering the importance of giving back. With a mix of science and hands-on crafts and activities, readers will be encouraged to brainstorm, imagine and understand the world as inventive scientists - to touch, collect, document, sketch, decode, analyse, experiment, unravel, interpret, compare and reflect.

Reviews

Marcie Cuff makes nature even more fun than the way you find it. This is abook about imagination and creativityand getting dirty. The projects in ThisBook Was a Tree remind me of the dozens of ways we can all connect with thenatural world on a daily basis. And since Marcie writes from the heart, you canjust feel the satisfaction and even joy youll get from connecting a little bit morewith the world around you. She has ideas that everyone can try alone or withfriends or family. Shes going to make a lot of lives simpler, happier, and moreplugged in to the world thats all around us.David Yarnold, President and CEO of National Audubon Society

It really is good to get dirty, and this is a wonderful guidebook to exactly how!Bill McKibben, author of Wandering Home

Somewhere, in a book of advice on aging, I read a fine adage: Do somethingreal every day. Thats good advice for people of every age. From the title of thebook, through all of its pages of ideas and adventures, Marcie Chambers Cuffhelps us remember whats real and what makes kids and their families feel fullyalive in a virtual age.Richard Louv, author of Last Child in the Woods and The Nature Principle

Whether you live in a twenty-story building in the middle of the city or on atwenty-acre preserve, this beautifully illustrated book urges us all to explorethe outdoors like never before. Full of fun, simple ideas and endless inspiration,Cuff s book will help all ages get creative and get connectedto nature, tothe process, and to the world in which we live.Bernadette Noll, author of Slow Family Living

A book that wonderfully captures the wandering and wonderment of myyouthand brings it to life again. Part project, part prose, what was destined formy eleven-year-old niece in New England has managed to linger on my deskfor too long. I might even keep it for myself!M. Sanjayan, lead scientist at the Nature Conservancy and TV host

This book still is a tree: to climb, survey, and touch the simple wonders of nature.Marcie Chambers Cuff gives us back the physical world: Most of all, shereturns it to our children.Adrian Higgins, garden columnist for the Washington Post

This Book Was a Tree is full of sparks to reignite your curiosity and engagementwith the natural world around you.Toby A. Adams, director of the Edible Academy atthe New York Botanical Garden

If we forget where we came from, we are lost. Marcies book offers a path homeand endless opportunities to learn. We love what we know, so we have to beginwith the knowing, and this book can help you begin. This Book Was a Tree canhelp anyone begin to love the natural world around them and want to be partof it.Ellen D. Ketterson, distinguished professor of biology andexecutive producer of Ordinary Extraordinary Junco

If orangutans, Asian elephants, and crows can improvise creative ways to interactwith nature, Marcie Cuff shows us: so can we! You are very lucky that youhave picked up this book. Now go get your hands dirty and have fun!Melanie Choukas-Bradley, naturalist and author of City of Trees

Marcie Cuff s book is a treasure! Even a diehard nature lover like me foundnew inspiration and ideas for getting my kid to put down the screens and comeoutside and explore, ask questions, and get our hands dirty while learningabout this magnificent planet we share. Any parent who is frustrated by thedraw of todays relentless gadgets should bring this book home.Annie Leonard, author and host of The Story of Stuff

This Book Was a Tree is a strong and creative shout-out to all of us who areartists, teachers, naturalists, parents, and simply humans. This book begs us toput down our button-pushing gadgets and challenges us to reconnect to naturethrough pages of timeless projects, creative acts, and deep thought. From guerrillagardening to pinhole cameras to phenology, Ms. Cuff covers it all with theexpertise of a scientist and a mother. This is not another book of nature craftsyou can do with a paper plate or a corn husk. The introduction alone may bringyou to tears with an urgent message speaking of global damage, environmentaldegradation, and ozone depletion. The author invites us to keep a foot in bothworlds knowing that we can come to our senses through purposeful and funexploration of the natural environment around us, no matter where we live. Iapplaud This Book Was a Tree for being a tree first and giving the author thepages to share with us the most important message of our time.Amy Butler, director of education for the North Branch Nature Center andfounder of ECO (Educating Children Outdoors)

It becomes obvious early on that writing This Book Was a Tree was a laborof love for author Marcie Chambers Cuff. The passion in her words and convictionin her messages are real, and comforting. Her message is simple: Stepaway from the A/V technology of the twenty-first century and go outside toexperience the natural world. Overcome the inertia of home comforts and goout and get dirty, poke things with a stick (dead things, which is how all wildlifebiologists get their start), look around, use that acorn between your shoulders,and become creative, think on your own. This book is not just for city folk, noris it just for kids. Its something to be shared between parent and child, teacherand student. It belongs at home and in schools. Its projects and adventures tobe shared for years and among generations.Michael J. Petrula, research and management biologist,Alaska Department of Fish and Game, Division of Wildlife Conservation

Author Bio

Marcie Cuff has an academic background in studio art, evolutionary biology and animal behavior, and an MA in Secondary Science teaching. Now a nature columnist for a regional newspaper, The Hudson Independent, she has written professionally for most of her life, and runs Mossy, a blog highlighting innovative family projects, hands-on parenting commentary, and related photography, and listed as one of Babbles top 50 Mom Craft Blogs of 2011. She works as a garden coordinator at a local elementary school, and organizes and maintains a community-based vegetable garden.