A beautiful book highlighting the diversity of a neighbourhood and community. Parks can be such gathering places, and I love how multi-use this one is! Incredibly sweet.

I received an arc of this title from NetGalley for an honest review. A gorgeous book about how the park connects all kinds of people and communities.

A Park Connects Us is a beautifully inclusive look at public parks and all that they afford us, from a place to play or ride bikes or fly kites to a place to have a family picnic or a wedding.

This picture book has a wide array of verbs included and seems to be focused entirely on what a park can do or be for all of us!

The illustrations show us many of the fun or relaxing things we can do at a park and all the beauty it holds as well. Each page is filled with active and friendly park-goers of all ages, races, cultures, and more, sharing a community space that is welcome to all.

There's also a beautiful reminder that parks are something that we, as a community, make possible and a bit of information about popular parks around the world and what they mean to those communities.

The kids really enjoyed this one and the beautiful artwork was a big plus for me. Easy to follow along and easy enough for my older readers to be able to read to their siblings. Definitely one to add to our shelves!

This is a sweet book with an important message about the equality offered by public parks. A park can be many things - a gathering spot, a place to quietly sit and reflect, a habitat or a place to take a stand and make a statement. No matter what purpose it is serving, the fact remains that these spaces are for all members of a community no matter who they are. I love the inclusive illustrations and the direct but meaningful language in this book.

A Park Connects Us is a vibrant story about how parks affect us in the best way. There is so much diversity on each page, from the type of park portrayed, the different people visiting the park, and the activities that happen at the park. There are young and old park goers, park goers in wheelchairs, and park goers in all colors. I envision young readers becoming so excited to see themselves on the pages of these books and making connections with the characters.

My students have a park unit in science where they have to create a park that is fit for all living things, humans, plants and animals. This story would be a great introduction to that unit and would help them visualize the different people that go to parks and what activities they like to do. I also think readers of any age would enjoy perusing the beautiful illustrations. I particularly loved the sky on the last few pages where the sun is setting and the sky is full of so many different colors!

Thank you NetGalley and OwlKids Books for the advanced copy. All opinions are my own.

This was a lovely, wonderful book that I will definitely be purchasing for my classroom. I loved all of the beautiful illustrations of different people and families, as well as the beautiful nature scenes at the park. This book will introduce some new words to my students, as well as give them ideas to connect with that they already have. I would love this in a board book for my infants as well!

Thanks to Netgalley and Owlkids Books for a free digital copy.
This beautifully illustrated book is an ode to community parks, showing that they are for everyone with the diverse people and animals enjoying the amenities of a well-maintained park. Great vocabulary would make this an ideal read-aloud for elementary aged students.

We need more books like this. This title is very colorful and wonderfully illustrated. Storyline was interesting and descriptive. I loved the flow of this book. I would add this to resource book file.

This book was a perfect choice for our community literary event. Bright, engaging pictures and inclusive story. I enjoyed this book and I think our attendees will enjoy adding their gift book to their home collection.

The beautiful concept book celebrates city parks and the variety of ways that they can bring people together: quiet reflection, rollicking play, marriage proposals, weddings, community celebrations, strolls, and more. Author Sarah Nelson’s playful, kid-friendly text pairs beautifully with Ellen Rooney’s mixed-media illustrations, which portray not only diverse people but also biodiversity in plants and animals.

I accessed a digital ARC via Edelweiss in exchange for an honest review.

The illustrations in this book are simply gorgeous. They are colorful, detailed and give a wonderful sense of the joys that a park can offer. The inclusiveness of the people pictured perfectly aligns with the book’s message which is that parks are for all of us.

This is a lovely book. Read it with a young child that you know and observe the many details in the pictures.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Owlkids Books for this title. All opinions are my own.

This book is a wonderful ode to an urban park! The illustrations are diverse and the language in the text is wonderful. Readers will delight in all of the details in the illustrations. I loved the inclusion of a few greetings in other languages and the verbs used to describe the park. I highly recommend this book for any home or classroom library!

An adorable children's book about the importance of parks! This book shows in beautiful (and cute!) illustrations what parks can do for us and for nature! It shows they are for everyone. I also loved that at the end there is some factual information about parks. So so cute and such a good message!

My Thoughts:

This spoken word poem of a book talks about the connective power of a city park in bringing together diverse groups of people for diverse reasons to collectively enjoy the space and promise that a public park holds. I enjoyed the way some of the highlighted words created their own found poem within the text. This book acted as a call to action for me to remember other parks throughout space and time that have connected me to place, to activities, even to people who are no longer in this life.

If you are in Hilo, Hawaii, please come to Lili'uokalani Gardens with its tea house and old sumo pitch on one edge, the natural brackish water ponds that are fed by Hilo Bay in the middle, as well as the Japanese garden touches like the stone lanterns, the torii or red gates and the Edo style rocks that stand vigilant. On any given day, you will see walkers exercising around the 2.2 mile sidewalk that rounds the perimeter of this park. If you see people standing on the top corner across from the Hilo Hawaiian hotel, they are probably playing Pokemon. People walk their dogs along the paths at all hours. My husband can be seen fly fishing near the pavilion bridge or beneath one of the ironwood trees. There is a very smart fish that toys with him and slips away. People get married near the bamboo groves. High school prom courts have been taking court pictures at the park for as long as I can remember. Early in the morning on every July 4, families stake out areas to set up pop up tents and chairs ready to barbecue, swim, and play until the 4th of July Fireworks that are launched from Moku Olu Island.


Like the book says, I hope that in your community, your city, your town you also have a public park that connects the generations too. (Pictures of Lili'uokalani Gardens below, including my husband fly fishing in the park).

From the Publisher:
An ode to urban parks and the many ways they connect us to community and nature

This picture book excursion through a city park invites readers to discover how shared green spaces bring us together. Lyrical, upbeat text illuminates the abundant gifts the park offers. Vibrant mixed-media illustrations show a diverse group of visitors as they explore this communal space. Children frolic; couples wander; flowers bloom and birds zoom; friends and families picnic and play ball or simply sink their toes peacefully into the present moment. Meanwhile, rolling hills and green trees enfold visitors in nature’s beauty. Encouraged by the sense of unity the park creates, the visitors come together for a joyful dance party and a march for peace and equality. Spread by spread, we see how urban parks are for everyone—whoever we are.

This love letter to public parks depicts an inclusive and accessible space where community flourishes. Without a screen in sight, it gently hints at the adventures to be had offline and encourages readers to venture into nature and connect with their neighborhoods. Back matter provides a brief history of urban parks in North America and highlights park successes around the world.

Diverse picture book celebrating people in all their forms, skin colors and abilities enjoying the camaraderie of a park. The author shows that parks aren't for certain people or specific activities but is truly a space where generations and people of different types can get together and share humanity.

Mixed media illustrations add to the charm of this book. This book is a great way to share a story about community, and also the free spaces that makes that community possible.

This is a picture book that highlights the wonderful place parks play in the community. They are places of relaxation, gathering, reflection, recreation, and so many other wonderful things. Most children have parks near them, but don't always visit them, so this story brings attention to parks and nature in a way that is accessible to children, celebrating all the joys that parks bring to our lives. Their is not a lot of text but it is full of vibrant, action oriented and descriptive words that will engage readers, as well as enrich vocabularies. Having said that, it is the illustrations that blew me away. They are amazing, large, and vibrant with stories in each one. Each illustration includes people of every race, size, and shape, there was LGBTQ+ representation, as well as disabled representation! Of course there are also animals that you would see in city parks. The message of this book is that parks are for everyone, and the illustrations certainly back up that statement. This is a book I recommend to all libraries, whether community, school, classroom or family. There is also a section in the back pages about how Central Park in New York City came about and encouraged other communities to do the same. A tribute to parks everywhere. The publisher generously provided me with a copy of this book upon request. The ratings and opinions shared are my own.

This is such a cute, wholesome book about why parks are so important and beloved to families, friends, and everyone else. As the title states, a park is a huge part of an inclusive community. I feel this would be a great book to read for readers of all ages.

Thank you, NetGalley, Owlkids Books, and Sarah Nelson, for my ARC for an honest review!

This is a fantastic ode to parks and all the wonderful benefits they offer to the community. They are places of relaxation, gathering, reflection, recreation, and so many other wonderful things. The text is full of vibrant, lively descriptive words that will engage readers and enrich vocabularies. The illustrations are stunning and detailed--I had to go back through after reading just to enjoy them once more! A beautiful diversity of people are represented on the page, showing that there is a place for everyone in the park.

This would make a wonderful circle time read and a great addition to pre-K and elementary school and classroom libraries!

Many thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review!

Thank you to the Owlkids Books and NetGalley for the advanced electronic review copy of this book. This beautifully illustrated story is about the role parks play in our lives and everything one can do there. More information about public parks is provided at the end of the book. Looking forward to sharing this book with my students when it is published in March