America’s Gift to the World
Reviewed by Dr. Jerry Flack
National parks are the best idea we ever had. Absolutely American, absolutely democratic, they reflect us at our best rather than our worst.
Wallace Stegner, 1983
Reading for gifted youths is basically divided into two major genres: fiction and nonfiction. The essence of fiction is storytelling and the primary format is the use of the narrative voice. Nonfiction writing may use either exposition or narration. Expository writing is information based. One of the characteristics of expository writing is the presence of extensive author research. The text introduces and explains information that may be new to students. Readers are engaged in fact finding. Examples include history, science, journalism, how-to manuals, academic texts, philosophy, persuasive essays, and travel guides and travelogues. Biographies, autobiographies, and memoirs are examples of nonfiction that use the narrative voice. A classic example is Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl.
Being able to work well with expository nonfiction is vital for readers of all ages. The vast majority of today’s young gifted readers will spend their adult lives reading nonfiction. Expository writing challenges readers to employ the positive habit of gathering and assimilating new information, while simultaneously expanding their vocabularies. Travel guides help students combine existing knowledge of flora, fauna, geology, and geography with new content. Map reading is another bonus. Most travel guides follow a basic structure of expository writing. A format is introduced early on and is repeated throughout the guide. These guides use beautiful full-color photographs to visually enlighten student awareness. They can also serve as models for students to use in creating original travel guides.
Moon USA National Parks
Author Becky Lomax has special connections with America’s 63 national parks. Her great-grandparents visited Yellowstone on their honeymoon. She grew up in the state of Washington where her father spent his career as a national park ranger. Exploring the national parks in America has been her lifetime goal.
The introductory chapter provides a preview of her park profiles. Lomax begins by sharing her own Top Ten national park experiences including such categories as the Best Hiking, Best Wildlife Viewing, Best Parks for Kids, Best Scenic Drives, Best Parks for the Traditions of Indigenous Peoples, Best “Off-Season” Parks, and Best Parks with Public Transit. Next, Lomax reveals the content organization of her guide. She divides chapters by geography that begin with national parks in Alaska and moves on to the Southwest, Rocky Mountains, Great Lakes and the South. She concludes with Island parks that include the two national parks not found in the 50 states: Virgin Islands National Park and the National Park of American Samoa.
Readers may be surprised to learn that national parks exist in only 30 states and that numerous states have multiple parks. California leads the United States with nine national parks and Alaska is home to eight parks. With the exception of Acadia National Park in Maine, there are no National Parks in New England or the Northeast states.
Lomax’s essay about Yellowstone National Park is a great place to begin her travel encyclopedia of America’s 63 national parks. Yellowstone is the oldest national park in the world. President Ulysses S. Grant signed a Congressional bill in 1872 to preserve the park lands. Yellowstone National Park has preserved forever many of the world’s most arresting waterfalls, hot and colorful pools, grand forests, and hydrothermal features that include geysers such Old Faithful. Today, Yellowstone is also home to the largest remaining herds of bison in the nation. Other park wildlife includes bears, elk, wolves, and bighorn sheep. Positioned chiefly in the northwest corner of Wyoming, Yellowstone borders and provides entrances from Idaho and Montana.
Lomax notes the heavy cost to the Indigenous people who were displaced in order to create some of America’s greatest National parks, such as Yellowstone, Yosemite, Glacier, the Great Smoky Mountains, and the Grand Canyon. Indigenous people had used these lands as both permanent and seasonal homes for as long as 10,000 years.
In its early years, U.S. Army units, and later, the U. S. Forest Service, maintained and supervised the growing number of national parks. Finally, 44 years after the founding of Yellowstone, President Woodrow Wilson signed legislation that established the National Park Service and made it a part of The Department of the Interior. The National Park Service mission is to “preserve unimpaired the natural and cultural resources and values of the national park system for the enjoyment, education, and inspiration of this and future generations.”
Lomax’s Yellowstone National Park chapter opens with a two-page map. The back matter of the guide provides visual symbols and map vocabulary used throughout the entire guide book. A large-format detachable foldout map accompanies the guide. Metric conversions are also found in the guide’s end notes.
Following a brief introduction to the extraordinary natural glories of Yellowstone, Lomax notes scenic highlights to be enjoyed during all four seasons of the year. She describes a single-day ideal excursion through the park. Visitor centers are noted along with tips to tourists to avoid crowds. In every park chapter, Lomax notes her top three unforgettable experiences. While touring Yellowstone, park guests are urged to “...marvel at Old Faithful Geyser, watch wildlife, and gaze into the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone (River).” Scenic drives and hiking in the park are additional bonus features. Where to stay provides vital park reservation information for overnight guests, who need to make early reservations. Final tips feature sightseeing tours and private driving suggestions. Spectacular color photography enriches the chapters, especially with majestic images of Morning Glory Pool and Mammoth Terraces that are so glorious that words alone fail to communicate their true beauty.
Lomax writes 62 additional profiles of the other existing national parks. Each park is unique. Biscayne National Park is made up of 95 percent sea water. The glory of the behemoth chasm of the Grand Canyon National Park is more than a mile deep and 18 miles wide. The Great Smoky Mountains National Park is the most frequently visited national park. Similar travel guides invite gifted readers to travel to every state and region of the United States and most of the nations of the world.
National Parks of the U.S.A.
Moon USA National Parks is written for adult readers, but represents a comfortable fit for gifted readers in the middle and secondary grades. Younger readers will find Kate Siber’s National Parks of the U.S.A. to be both beautiful and informative. There are three significant differences between Siber’s national park reference work and Lomax’s adult travel guide. First, Siber’s text is significantly enhanced by the sumptuous digital illustrations of artist Chris Turnham. Turnham also illustrated Carrie Fountain’s The Poem Forest: Poet W. S. Merwin and the Palm Tree Forest He Grew from Scratch, which I reviewed for the November, 2022 issue of Gifted Development Center Newsletter. National Parks of the U.S.A. is a true picture book. Secondly, Siber and Turnham accentuate for younger readers the wildlife found in featured national parks. For example, handsome illustrations of the flora and fauna of Biscayne National Park in the Florida Keys highlight the fact that this sea water park is home to 600 species of fish, more than all the animal species in Yellowstone National Park. Thirdly, Siber does not include all 63 of America’s national parks in her beautiful tribute. She writes chapters about 21 unique national parks found in every geographic region of the nation. Adult readers will find National Parks of the U.S.A. to be a delight to read and enjoy exploring it as a visual feast for the entire family.
Home and School Activities
Create Travel Guides. Travel guides are plentiful in libraries, bookstores, and online. Some bookstores are entirely devoted to travel literature. Travelogues provide models gifted writers can follow to create their own guides. Student-created guides are not limited to America’s national parks. National parks are found in many nations. Travel guides exist for cities, regions, states, countries, continents, and even world-wide wonders found on Earth. After students have read Becky Lomax’s 63 chapters in Moon USA National Parks, they can copy her format. Introductions are followed with featured highlights about natural phenomena, wildlife, history, maps, transportation information, guest services, and illustrations or photographs. Encourage students to select places that are special to them such as their communities and hometowns, states, and favorite vacation sites. Student travel guides do not have to be exhaustive. One example might be a guide to their favorite museum.
Propose a New National Park. Only 30 states in the America are home to national parks. What natural phenomena in other states deserve to be preserved as national parks? Even states that have existing national parks may have additional natural phenomena that would make them ideal new national parks. Urge students to suggest a new national park. Their proposal should include a rationale as to why a favored place should be elevated to the status of becoming a new national park. Maps of land (or sea) should be included. Illustrations or copyright-free photographs found online will round out the content.
Create Original Post Cards. One of the most ubiquitous items found in gift stores of national parks are post cards. After reading Moon USA National Parks, encourage students to create drawings of one or more of the scenic highlights or wildlife species found in at least one of the 63 national parks. Students can use poster-size paper. Their winning illustrations can be “shrunk” to a standard post-card size. Equally creative are original commemorative postage stamps students create to honor specific national parks. Chris Turnham’s picturesque illustrations for Kate Siber’s National Parks of the U.S.A. can serve as models.
Fictional Reading and Writing. After students have worked with the expository writing of travel guides, they may want to read (and perhaps write) fiction that is set in national parks. The Campground Kids is a series of five novels for young readers that are set in national parks. C. R. Futon independently published her first mystery, Grand Teton Stampede, in 2022. Other national park sites featured in The Campground Kids library include adventures set in Rocky Mountain, Great Smoky Mountain, Zion, and Grand Canyon National Parks.
Aaron Johnson has also begun a self-published National Park Mystery series. His new titles include national park mysteries set in the Rocky Mountain and Great Sand Dunes National Parks. See also national park fiction books written by Scott Graham. These and other national park mystery series may be researched and ordered through Amazon. Encourage young gifted writers to use the factual knowledge they have gained from reading the 63 chapters of Becky Lomax’s Moon USA National Parks to write their own opening chapter to a national park mystery they plan to create.
Lomax, Becky. Moon USA National Parks: The Complete Guide to All 63 Parks. Berkeley, CA: Moon Travel, 2022. Third Edition.
Siber, Kate. National Parts of the U.S.A. Illus. by Chris Turnham. Minneapolis, MN: Wide Eyed Editions, 2018.
