"Every Natural Fact is nothing short of sensational." --Pamela Miller, Minneapolis Star Tribune
"Any reader drawn to the outdoors will cherish Every Natural Fact and its author's sensual intelligence potted in the fertile soil of a boundless curiosity for the world. Amy Lou Jenkins is the Anna Quindlen of the north woods, the Rachel Carson of the good land of Wisconsin, bequeathing to her son and to all of us an indestructible sense of wonder."—Bob Shacochis, National Book Award-winning author of Easy in The Islands and The Immaculate Invasion
"If you combined the lyricism of Annie Dillard, the vision of Aldo Leopold, and the gentle but tough-minded optimism of Frank McCourt, you might come close to Amy Lou Jenkins, a writer who obliterates the distinction between regional writing and actual, honest-to-god writing. I, for one, would follow her anywhere."—Tom Bissell, author of Chasing the Sea and The Father of All Things
"What makes this book such a marvel is the way the human and the non-human are kept in perfect balance: the psychological dance of a mother and son, with all its funny, touching, realistic two-steps, intersects with the desire to be opened up to the mystery and rapture of the natural sublime. It is a splendid fusion, as much about parenting and education and generation gaps as it is about patient observation of landscapes in flux. Jenkins' polished literary style makes it, sentence by sentence, a joy to read."—Phillip Lopate, author of Waterfront and At the End of the Day
"Braiding together history, memoir, gentle parenting guidance, and superb nature writing, Jenkins' prose illuminates the details of ordinary life."—Susan Cheever, author of Home before Dark and American Bloomsbury
"Amy Lou Jenkins writes with complexity about the dance human beings do with nature, and with one another. . . . She puts together pieces of history, natural history, and parenting to make a touching and memorable whole. The whole thing rings true."—Michael Finley, judge of the Ellis Henderson Outdoor Writing Award
"Her vivid imagery mixes a naturalist's precision with a spiritual seeker's poetry."—Robert Wake, author and editor of Cambridge Book Review Press and co-judge for the X.J. Kennedy Award for Nonfiction
"Armed with a keen sense of geography, geology, and biology—as well as a delightful arsenal of regional folklore—Amy Lou Jenkins chronicles a series of Wisconsin nature walks with her adolescent son, determined to face her own foibles and learning to accept that D.J. will eventually leave her loving nest. In her cogent, smart book she holds on to her boy even as she lets him go, and in the process discovers—through the natural world, through her faith, and through guides such as Muir and Leopold—her own strength and vulnerability as a mother."—Debra Gwartney, author of Live Through This: A Mother's Memoir of Runaway Daughters and Reclaimed Love and co-editor of Home Ground: Language for an American Landscape
Endorsed by the PTPA (Parent Tested, Parent Approved)
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