around the parks: a nature library for mccalley
a park bench, a sunny morning, and a stack of books on butterflies and baby animals. what more could a bookworm want?
by stephen brookes
Bookworms, as we know, are a native species in Hollin Hills, and an important part of the natural ecosystem. Subsisting on a diet of paper pulp and ideas, they can often be spotted roaming among the neighborhood’s Little Free Libraries, in an endless quest for food. Sadly, the poor creatures have always had to read on their feet — until now, that is! Thanks to the Friends of Hollin Hills, there’s a new Library planted right next to two comfortable benches in a leafy bower in McCalley Park — where book-lovers can sit and read to their hearts’ content.
Native Ostrich Ferns in McCalley Park
Which sounds to me pretty much like Eden itself, so on a sunny morning recently, I packed up my reading glasses and headed down to McCalley to have a look. The park, of course, is a native plant demonstration garden, and the intriguing thing about the new Little Free Library there is that it’s dedicated exclusively to books on nature — from practical planting guides, to kids’ books, to philosophy. In other words, you get to bask amid ostrich ferns and golden ragwort and whatnot, while keeping your nose in a book about ostrich ferns and ragworts etc. This makes perfect sense to us bookworms.
After a quick stroll through the park to greet (as courtesy requires) the native plants there, I unlatched the door of the new forest-green Library and peered inside. There’s a sign encouraging people to read the books in situ rather than taking them home — a change from the usual protocol — so I picked out about a dozen of them and plomped down on one of the benches.
And thus began an extremely pleasant hour of reading, accompanied by birdsong, a cool breeze, and the distant plinkity-plonk of pickleball. The Library has a mix of books for all ages, and, being easily dazzled by bright colors and playful fonts, I headed first for the kids’ books, starting with National Geographic’s Caterpillar to Butterfly, whose general plot line you can probably glean from the title.
And, speaking on behalf of my fellow 3-to-6-year-olds, “Caterpillar to Butterfly” is a fantastic read. It’s a lively ride through the insect life-cycle, and is chock-a-block with such butterfly factoids as “smallest butterfly” (the Blue Pygmy, the size of a pushpin), and “how do butterflies taste” (with their feet). (Oh you thought I meant how do they taste — National Geo doesn’t say. Probably could use some salt).
As good as “Caterpillar” was, though, it paled next to Mystery of the Monarchs, by Barb Rosenstock. “Mystery” tells the story of Fred and Norah Urquhart, just a couple of ordinary entomologists who organized literally bazillions of volunteers in a massive, 40-year search and finally, in 1975, solved the question of where all the monarch butterflies go in winter (spoiler: it’s a forest in Mexico). An inspirational story that any science-oriented 4-to-8 year old will find pretty cool.
The butterfly genre was starting to feel a bit crowded, though, so I moved on to “Bees Are Our Friends,” by Toni D’Alia and Alice Lindstrom, which was fun, beautifully illustrated, and empowering to little girls with its bee heroine bringing her pollinating “special power” from garden to garden. A great book. The Bumblebee Queen by April Pulley Sayre had bees aplenty but (to me, anyway) not a lot of buzz, though the most beautiful book in the collection was Sayre’s “Thank You Earth”, a perfectly-photographed “love letter” to nature, which was light on the verbiage and fun for all ages to leaf through together. A great family book if you only have a minute.
I really tried to like “Over in a River”, which turned out to be a counting book with baby animals and their cute names (baby salmon are known as “smolts,” in case you haven’t read the book, and baby otters are “pups”). But counting to ten gets a little dull once you work out the plot, and the news that baby dragonflies don’t have a special cute name but are just called “dragonflies” was, frankly, kind of a letdown. Your own animal-loving, learning-to-count three-year-old may disagree, however, as is their perfect right.
With childhood behind me, I moved on to the grown-up books. “Deer-Resistant Native Plants for the Northeast” by Ruth Clausen and Gregory Tepper touches on a subject dear (hahaha) to all our hearts, and offers some excellent practical and strategic advice — along with the caveat that, if they’re hungry enough, deer will just munch through anything in your garden including cyanide, and then laugh at you. Sure, go ahead and plant native species — but maybe don’t throw away the Deer-B-Gone just yet.
That led to maybe the most useful guide in the Library: Native Plants for Northern Virginia, an extremely clear, down-to-earth and well-illustrated book put out by Plant NOVA Natives. If you’re making even the slightest effort to go native, you need this book. And if you don’t want to make the trip to McCalley, you can just download the thing for free here. (These Plant NOVA Natives people are saints, if you want my view.)
The real heart of the McCalley collection, though — and a book that belongs in every thinking person’s library — is Bringing Nature Home, by Doug Tallamy. Tallamy had the insight that, in the modern developed world, our own little backyard gardens could prove instrumental in building a thriving ecosystem, if we filled them with native plants that provide native wildlife with food and shelter. He’s written several important books exploring the idea, and the planet is better for him being here. And reading Tallamy’s work in McCalley — where wardens Alice Cisternino and Daniel Fragiadakis have been leading the native plant effort — made it all the more vivid and inspiring. Definitely a must-read.
So, fellow bookworms: the next time you find yourself wondering, “Why has no one combined the brilliant idea of Little Free Libraries with the brilliant idea of park benches, and then tossed in some ostrich ferns for fun,” remind yourself that Friends of Hollin Hills has now done exactly that — and get yourself down to McCalley Park. For family outings, or for anyone just looking to pause for a moment on a shady bench, drink in the subtle beauty of native ragworts, and maybe get some ideas about what to plant in their own garden, there may be no better spot.
And if you’ve got some nature books you’d like to contribute, drop them in the Library or get in touch with the tireless Parks Chair (and chief librarian?) Gretchen Spencer, who will vacuum them up from you in a heartbeat. She’s been keeping the Library in great shape since it went up on Earth Day — thank you Gretchen!
— Stephen Brookes