Not at my library, but I did just place a request for [b:Lee Friedlander: Photographs Frederick Law Olmsted Landscapes|2567274|Lee Friedlander Photographs Frederick Law Olmsted Landscapes|Lee Friedlander|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1266927882s/2567274.jpg|2576456].

Would be a useful addition to units on US immigration ( )

Children's author Frieda Wishinsky, who grew up in New York City, and (presumably) understands the importance of urban parks to city dwellers, here delivers an engaging picture-book biography of Frederick Law Olmstead, the co-designer of New York's Central Park, and the creator of so many other key public spaces, in North America's crowded cities. Opening with his childhood in rural Connecticut, and then following him through his years as a young man, when he tried his hand at a number of careers, to his discovery, as Central Park's first superintendent, of his true calling, as a landscape architect, Wishinsky sets out the story of this remarkable man, his love for green spaces, and the way that love benefited generations of city dwellers on this continent.

I found The Man Who Made Parks to be an immensely informative book - if questioned hitherto, I would not have been able to name Olmstead, and his partner, Calvert Vaux, as the designers of Central Park, nor would I have known that Olmstead also worked on the grounds of the Capitol Building, in Washington, D.C. - and also a visually appealing one. The artwork, done by Chinese-Canadian illustrator Song Nan Zhang, whose The Ballad of Mulan is one of my favorite retellings of that traditional story, is energetic and engrossing. All in all, this was an excellent picture-book biography! My only criticism, and it is a significant one, for an informational book, is that there is no afterword that gives further details about Olmstead, or provides further reading ideas. This rather odd oversight was irksome enough that I docked a star from my rating. Leaving this aside, this is a book I would recommend to all young park lovers, and to those young readers interested in how urban parks came to be. ( )

According to Wikipedia, Frederick Law Olmsted (1822-1903) was an American journalist, social critic, public administrator and landscape designer, who is popularly considered the father of American landscape architecture. Olmsted was famous for co-designing many well-known urban parks with his senior partner Calvert Vaux, including Central Park in New York City, Mount Royal Park in Montreal, Quebec, Presque Isle Park in Marquette, Michigan, the landscape surrounding the United States Capitol Building in Washington DC, as well as many US college and university campuses, such as Yale, Cornell and Stanford.

[b:The Man Who Made Parks: The Story of Parkbuilder Frederick Law Olmsted|4436629|The Man Who Made Parks The Story of Parkbuilder Frederick Law Olmsted|Frieda Wishinsky|http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1320473563s/4436629.jpg|4484815], written by Frieda Wishinsky, with illustrations by Song Nan Zhang, is an informative picture book biography of Frederick Law Olmsted's life and achievements, a readable and engaging account of not only his triumphs, but also his struggles and legacy. Frederick Law Olmsted did not just push for and create the first urban parks in the United States of America, he made people realise that nature, that landscape design, that natural spaces were necessary in the large urban centres of North America, and that the inhabitants of these urban centres needed trees, needed green spaces, that cities needed to be beautified, that trees were essential for both cities and the inhabitants of said cities.

The extensive, engaging narrative flows remarkably well for a biographical account, and while there is quite a lot of text, the latter is not overly complicated and reads quite easily. Due to the text-heavy nature of the book, [b:The Man Who Made Parks: The Story of Parkbuilder Frederick Law Olmsted|4436629|The Man Who Made Parks The Story of Parkbuilder Frederick Law Olmsted|Frieda Wishinsky|http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1320473563s/4436629.jpg|4484815] is best suited for older children above the ages of eight or ten (especially if children are reading the text independently). However, for a read-aloud, [b:The Man Who Made Parks: The Story of Parkbuilder Frederick Law Olmsted|4436629|The Man Who Made Parks The Story of Parkbuilder Frederick Law Olmsted|Frieda Wishinsky|http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1320473563s/4436629.jpg|4484815] would likely also work with slightly younger children, although the amount of information presented might be somewhat distracting and possibly even intimidating for the very young.

Song Nan Zhang's illustrations, what can I say about them, but that they are absolutely glorious. Lush, descriptive, evocative, they capture both the crowds, the hustle and bustle of the city and the magnificence of nature. It is often hard to find an illustrator whose human figures match his/her depictions of buildings, of nature and vice versa, but Song Nan Zhang has for a certainty achieved that often elusive goal. His illustrations (which are simply wonderful in and of themselves and deserve to be displayed in an art gallery) not only complement and mirror Frieda Wishinsky's exquisite narrative, they tell the story of Frederick Law Olmsted as evocatively as the text itself.

I would have rated [b:The Man Who Made Parks: The Story of Parkbuilder Frederick Law Olmsted|4436629|The Man Who Made Parks The Story of Parkbuilder Frederick Law Olmsted|Frieda Wishinsky|http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1320473563s/4436629.jpg|4484815] with five stars, had Frieda Wishinsky included a detailed author's note with suggestions for supplemental reading and bibliographical sources. Frederick Law Olmsted is not a name that most children would likely have ever heard of before (and not many adults either, I certainly was unaware of both his name and his many achievements). Thus an author's note would have increased the book's value as a teaching and learning tool. But still, very, very highly recommended!! ( )