Review for “The Day We Went to the Park” from Midwest Book Review, April 2020
From D. Donovan, Senior Reviewer, Midwest Book Review
“The Day We Went to the Park is an origami picture book for ages 3-9 that offers the unusual pairing of colorful origami pictures and a rollicking rhyme that explores a community park.
Author Linda Stephen studied Japanese art extensively. This contributes a unique approach to illustrations crafted from hundreds of handmade Japanese papers and more than 1,000 origami paper sculptures.
Teachers interested in promoting outdoors-based educational opportunities to the very young will find The Day We Went to the Park the perfect read-aloud introduction to this experience. As its fun rhyme reviews the sounds (gravel crunching underfoot), creatures (squirrel), and insects to be found outdoors, kids will enjoy the rollicking rhyme’s encouragement of an inquisitive attitude towards nature: “Now, let’s watch the inchworms scale that purple feathery flower./Did you have any idea inchworms had that much power?”
Any adult who wants to engage a youngster with promises of fun and delightful discovery to be gleaned from a trip into the great outdoors will find the artistic representations, enthusiasm, and observational invitation in The Day We Went to the Park to be just the ticket for cultivating an early appreciation of nature.”
