Marshmallow loves everything beautiful, and today she picked a beautiful book to talk about: National Parks of the U.S.A., written by Kate Siber, illustrated by Chris Turnham, and first published in 2018. Sprinkles was intrigued by the book and therefore is asking questions and taking notes along the way.
Sprinkles: So Marshmallow, you picked a really beautiful book for today’s review. Can you tell us a bit about it?
Marshmallow: If you like the wilderness or at least you enjoy being outdoors, and especially if you are in the U.S.A. and want to know more about its many national parks, then this might be the book for you.
S: It also seems to be a great book for folks who might just want to look at a pretty book.
M: Yes, I agree. It is really a pretty book. Every page is beautifully illustrated. Even though the illustrations seem to be using a limited color palette, focusing mainly on oranges, browns, and greens, each page is distinct and well designed. The limited color scheme actually works really well.
S: Okay, so we both agree that this is a beautiful book to look at. So let us get to the content of the book next.
M: As you can tell from the title, the book is about the national parks in the U.S.A. They are organized more or less geographically. It goes from the east, to the central U.S., then to the Southwest, then to the Rocky Mountains, then to the West. And finally there is a section on Alaska and then the tropics. For each of the regions there is an introductory page or two, and then they focus on some specific parks from the region and talk about the geographic formations, and the flora and fauna found in there.
S: Did you find some parks that you want to visit some day?
M: Yes, several actually. We have not been to most of these yet. And I think it would be great if we could go to at least some of them.
S: True. Our country has so many beautiful national parks to visit. We have been to a few state parks but not to any of the national ones yet.
M: Maybe we can go on a rabbit-road trip and see some of them.
S: That would be lovely Marshmallow! Did you know that the idea of national parks is relatively new? The first one in the U.S. is the Yellowstone National Park, which only became a national park in 1872. And today many countries around the world have reserved land in similar ways.
M: I did not know that before we found that Wikipedia article; it is very informative. But my book is also very informative. For example did you know that glaciers are not “massive stationary blocks of ice”, but instead are “rivers of frozen water that flow down mountains”? I learned that when I was reading about the Glacier National Park.
S: That is cool!
M: And apparently rangers in the Badlands National Park say that “you have only 500,000 years to visit before the spires and the hills [of the park] wash away from rain and wind”.
S: Sounds like the author has a playful voice.
M: Yes. I really liked her voice. She is playful and friendly and makes the reader want to see all these places.
S: I’d say that is a successful book! How would you rate it?
M: I’d rate it 100%.
S: I knew it! Okay, this is a good time to wrap this up. What would you like to tell our readers?
M: Stay tuned for more amazing reviews from the book bunnies!
BookBunnies 
I don’t know if Marshmallow knows this, but one of the founders of the national park system was one of my favorite presidents, Teddy Roosevelt. Teddy was multi-talented, a politician, statesman, conservationist, naturalist, writer and the first American to win a Nobel Prize (the peace prize) for brokering a peace that ended the Russo-Japanese War. As president, Roosevelt emerged as a leader of the Republican Party and became a driving force for anti-trust and Progressive policies. I guess the Republican Party was quite different then.
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Sounds like an interesting book. We have been to so many national parks over the years. Yosemite, the Grand Canyon, Sequoia and Glacier Bay. To me, the Grand Canyon was the most interesting.
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