Asphalt to Ecosystems: Design Ideas for Schoolyard Transformation

(New Village Press) In this book, Danks describes ways in which schools can design “green schoolyards,” incorporating many different facets of the natural world. This idea would allow children to play in a more natural landscape, better connecting them to the environment and the world around them, and allowing them to learn while playing. Filled with photographs of examples of successful sites around the country, the book can serve as a guide for those looking to improve schoolyard design. Danks is an environmental planner and the founding partner of Bay Tree Design, Inc., a landscape architecture and planning firm, in Berkeley, Calif.