Last Child in the Woods: Saving Our Children from Nature-Deficit Disorder (Updated, Expanded)
Description
The Book That Launched an International Movement "An absolute must-read for parents." --The Boston Globe "It rivals Rachel Carson's Silent Spring." --The Cincinnati Enquirer "I like to play indoors better 'cause that's where all the electrical outlets are," reports a fourth grader. But it's not only computers, television, and video games that are keeping kids inside. It's also their parents' fears of traffic, strangers, Lyme disease, and West Nile virus; their schools' emphasis on more and more homework; their structured schedules; and their lack of access to natural areas. Local governments, neighborhood associations, and even organizations devoted to the outdoors are placing legal and regulatory constraints on many wild spaces, sometimes making natural play a crime. As children's connections to nature diminish and the social, psychological, and spiritual implications become apparent, new research shows that nature can offer powerful therapy for such maladies as depression, obesity, and attention deficit disorder. Environment-based education dramatically improves standardized test scores and grade-point averages and develops skills in problem solving, critical thinking, and decision making. Anecdotal evidence strongly suggests that childhood experiences in nature stimulate creativity. In Last Child in the Woods, Louv talks with parents, children, teachers, scientists, religious leaders, child-development researchers, and environmentalists who recognize the threat and offer solutions. Louv shows us an alternative future, one in which parents help their kids experience the natural world more deeply--and find the joy of family connectedness in the process.Now includes
A Field Guide with 100 Practical Actions We Can Take
Discussion Points for Book Groups, Classrooms, and Communities
Additional Notes by the Author
New and Updated Research from the U.S. and Abroad Richard Louv's new book, Our Wild Calling, is available now.
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About the Author
Richard Louv is the author of nine books, including Last Child in the Woods: Saving Our Children From Nature-Deficit Disorder and The Nature Principle: Reconnecting with life in a Virtual Age. His most recent book is Vitamin N: The Essential Guide to a Nature-Rich Life. His books have been translated into 20 languages and helped launch an international movement to connect children and their families to nature.
He is the recipient of the 2008 Audubon Medal. Past recipients include Rachel Carson, E.O. Wilson and Jimmy Carter. Among other awards, Louv received the 2007 Cox Award, Clemson University's highest honor for "sustained achievement in public service." Louv is also co-founder and chairman emeritus of the Children & Nature Network (www.childrenandnature.org), an organization helping build the movement to connect today's children and future generations to the natural world. Louv coined the term Nature-Deficit Disorder(R) which has become the defining phrase of this important issue. He has written for The New York Times, The Washington Post, the Times of London, Orion, Outsideand other newspapers and magazines, and was a columnist for The San Diego Union-Tribuneand Parents magazine.
He has served as an adviser to the Ford Foundation's Leadership for a Changing World award program, and is a member of the Citistates Group, the editorial board of the journal, Ecopsychology. He is a member of the board of directors of ecoAmerica, a nonprofit focused on climate change. He appears often on national radio and television programs, including the Today Show, CBS Morning, Good Morning America, CBS Evening News, NBC Nightly News, and NPR's Fresh Air. He travels frequently to address national and international gatherings. In 2010, he delivered the plenary keynote at the national conference of the American Academy of Pediatrics, and in 2012 was keynote speaker at the first White House Summit on Environmental Education.
Married to Kathy Frederick Louv, he is the father of two young men, Jason and Matthew. He would rather hike than write.
Reviews
"Last Child in the Woods, which describes a generation so plugged into electronic diversions that it has lost its connection to the natural world, is helping drive a movement quickly flourishing across the nation." --The Nation's Health
"This book is an absolute must-read for parents." --The Boston Globe
"An honest, well-researched and well-written book, . . . the first to give name to an undeniable problem." --The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
"One of the most thought-provoking, well-written books I've read in recent memory. It rivals Rachel Carson's Silent Spring." --The Cincinnati Enquirer
"Important and original. . . . As Louv so eloquently and urgently shows, our mothers were right when they told us, day after day, 'Go out and play.'" --The Christian Science Monitor
"Last Child in the Woods is the direct descendant and rightful legatee of Rachel Carson's The Sense of Wonder. But this is not the only thing Richard Louv has in common with Rachel Carson. There is also this: in my opinion, Last Child in the Woods is the most important book published since Silent Spring." --Robert Michael Pyle, author of Sky Time in Gray's River
"A single sentence explains why Louv's book is so important: 'Our children, ' he writes, 'are the first generation to be raised without meaningful contact with the natural world.' This matters, and Last Child in the Woods makes it patently clear why and lays out a path back." --The Ecologist
"With this scholarly yet practical book, Louv offers solutions today for a healthier, greener tomorrow." --Washington Post Book World
"The simplest, most profound, and most helpful of any book I have read on the personal and historical situation of our children, and ourselves, as we move into the twenty-first century." --Thomas Berry, author of The Dream of the Earth
