Product Description

In a mythical world where time is a liquid that falls as rain upon the land, young Shanleya paddles her canoe out to the tree islands to learn the plant traditions of her people. Each island is home to a separate family of plants and an unforgettable Guardian with lessons to teach about the identification and uses of those plants. Shanleya's Quest is a truly unique educational book that presents botanical concepts and plant identification skills in an easy and fun metaphorical format for children as well as for adults who are young at heart. The book begins with a creation myth that parallels evolutionary concepts, where life begins as bubbles in a puddle of soup under the radiance of Father Sun and the gentle glow of Mother Moon. The evolutionary tree of life becomes a literal part of the story, buried up to its branch-tips (the "islands") in an ocean of Time that just keeps getting deeper and deeper. This is the world that Shanleya explores by canoe, learning the essential characteristics of closely related plants on each island she visits. Readers young and old can join Shanleya's Quest, learning the patterns to correctly identify more than 45,000 species of plants to their proper families. The Quest will change the way you see the world, enabling you to experience nature in a new and magical way that you probably never imagined possible. Written by outdoor educator Thomas J. Elpel, author of Botany in a Day: The Patterns Method of Plant Identification. Wonderfully illustrated by Gloria Brown, who blended botanical accuracy with fantasy to produce artwork that both captivates and educates!

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #144489 in Books
• Published on: 2005-08-30
• Released on: 2005-08-30
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 32 pages

Features

• ISBN13: 9781892784162
• Condition: NEW
• Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
• Click here to view our Condition Guide and Shipping Prices

From the Publisher
A Positive Relationship with Nature

Our culture teaches us that we are separate from nature. We spend most of our lives in houses surrounded by manicured lawns, living in towns or cities where recrecational activies are based on human-centered sports. Nature is something we go to a park to see, or we watch a show about it on TV.

Those of us in the field of environmental education try to preach a different message, telling people that "all life is interconnected" and that "we really are part of nature". But in the next breath we tell them to stay on the trails and to practice "no-trace" camping. We tell them to look at nature and photograph it, but not to touch it. We tell them our modern way of life is destroying nature, and that we need to stop mucking up the planet. In other words, we tell them we are part of nature--the bad part!

Here at HOPS Press, LLC we advocate a positive interactive relationship with the natural world. We want people to get involved in nature, to be a part of the process on many levels:

Through Participating in Nature: Thomas J. Elpel's Field Guide to Primitive Living Skills and the Art of Nothing Wilderness Survival Video Series, you can experience an intimate connection with nature as you rediscover the skills our ancestors used to survive for tens of thousands of years. Instead of merely camping in the wilderness or passing through it, you will become part of the process as you learn about nature by using it to meet your needs for shelter, fire, water and food. Learn to set aside the trappings of modern culture and step directly into nature with little or nothing, to experience nature on its own terms.

With Tom's book Botany in a Day: The Patterns Method of Plant Identification, you can connect with the wonderful diversity of plants and flowers all around you in a way that you may have never imagined. Instead of seeing the green world as little more than pretty wallpaper, you will learn to know the individual plants, wildflowers and weeds as if they have been your life-long friends. Our book Shanleya's Quest: A Botany Adventure for Kids Ages 9-99 utilizes the same patterns method of identifying plants as Botany in a Day, but in a metaphorical story form where children of all ages can join young Shanleya on her journey to learn the plant traditions of her people.

In Living Homes: Integrated Design & Construction you will learn how to make your home part of nature, as well as how to make nature part of your home. Learn the secrets to building low-cost, high-efficiency homes with stone masonry, log-building and strawbale construction methods. With this book and Tom's Slipform Stone Masonry DVD/VHS Video you will be able to build your quality, earth-friendly Dream home on a budget, even while the "experts" say it isn't cost effective.

Finally, in Direct Pointing to Real Wealth: Thomas J. Elpel's Field Guide to Money, you will learn to see the economy as an ecosystem where money is a token that represents calories of energy. Learn the basic rules of this economic ecosystem and you will be empowered to use your resources to more effectively achieve your desired quality of life, while making the world a better place to be. You will be able help convert an economy that harms planetary biodiversity into an economy that helps restore it.

About the Author
Thomas J. Elpel had the rare opportunity as a child to spend hundreds of hours with his grandmother Josie Jewett. Together they explored the hills and meadows near Virginia City, Montana, collecting herbs, looking for arrowheads and watching wildlife. Grandma Josie helped Tom to learn about native plants and their uses, igniting a passion for nature that has inspired him ever since.

Shanleya's Quest reflects a similar passing of the torch across generations, as Shanleya is mentored in the plant traditions of her people by her Grandfather.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
Forward Nature as Wallpaper

Nature exists as little more than wallpaper in most peoples’ lives. All around us there is pretty green foliage with a few flowers for splashes of color, plus birds chirping pleasantly nearby, and manicured ponds with ducks looking for breadcrumbs. It is all very quaint, but who really pays much attention to wallpaper?

At best, we are sometimes so taken with the scene of a rainbow after a storm or a butterfly visiting a flower that we pause for a moment to admire the wallpaper, but that is about as far as it goes. Only a few inspired individuals truly appreciate the wallpaper and travel to the wilderness to hike down a narrow trail, to get a completely unobstructed view, but it is still just wallpaper. The real world, as people experience it, is the world of people and culture. It is a world that we have built and it has real substance and action—buildings, cars, movies, parties, song and dance, and an endless stream of newsworthy events. With so much going on, why would anyone ever stop to investigate mere wallpaper? Nature remains a two-dimensional pretty picture in our lives, only rarely broken by the magnificent buck that unexpectedly comes crashing through the walls to stand in front of us. For a second the world takes on a undeniable three-dimensional aspect, hinting that there is more to the world beyond the walls. But the moment passes as quickly as it came, and nature returns to its two-dimensional normality. We look at our watches and continue on, eager to keep our appointments in the real world. I have written this book to be subversive in the most innocent of ways—using flowers as bait to entice readers young and old to stop and investigate the wallpaper. The patterns of botany out-lined through the stories of this book are so simple, so difficult to forget once you have seen them a time or two, that you will always recognize them when you pass on the street or in the woods. No longer will you be able to ignore them as mere splashes of color on the walls, but as something you are familiar with, like seeing an old friend. It is when you stop to say "hello" to this old friend, that the plot thickens, and you notice more of the wallpaper. "Who is this?" you wonder, and "Who is that?" This is my trap, to draw you in, one flower at a time, to entice you to wander off the beaten path and right into the wall paper, meeting friends and neighbors as you go, until you are immersed knee-deep in a swamp— catching bugs, following the birds to their hiding spots, and wondering what in the heck that unusual plant is just a little farther over there. Years later you may find yourself in a meadow of wildflowers and wildlife, surrounded by friends you have seemingly always known, only to look back and realize how far you have come. There in the distance is what you once called the real world, the world of people and culture. But now it seems like a house of smoke and mirrors, a place with bright lights and loud sounds, full of self-importance but empty of substance. The real world, you have discovered, was in the wallpaper all along.

Customer Reviews

Introducing young readers to the complex and diverse world of plant life
Shanleya is a young girl who lives in a world where Time is a liquid that falls as rain. When Shanleya paddles her canoe out to the "Tree Islands" to learn the plant traditions of her people, she learns that each island is home to a separate family of plants, and encounters an unforgettable Guardian with lessons to teach her about the identification and uses of those plants. A mythic, fairytale-like picturebook story for young readers, Shanleya's Quest: A Botany Adventure For Kids Ages 9 To 99 is as entertaining as it is thoughtful and thought-provoking, introducing young readers to the complex and diverse world of plant life -- and how to correctly identify various species of plants. There are even bits of sage advice along the way such as "In our national parks it is illegal to pick flowers. Please leave them for others to enjoy!". Deftly written by Thomas Elpel (whose informative text is enhanced with the artwork of Gloria Brown), Shanleya's Quest is confidently recommended for school and community library collections.