Love Every Leaf: The Life of Landscape Architect Cornelia Hahn Oberlander [Hardcover]

Kathy Stinson (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 8, 2008

Cornelia Hahn Oberlander, who has been a landscape architect for more than sixty years, considers her profession “the art of the possible.” The description also applies to the very way this remarkable 86-year-old has lived her life. Playing in her grandmother’s garden as a child, Cornelia absorbed the beauty and importance of the natural world and by the age of eleven had decided that she would become a landscape architect.

Leaving her native Germany in the wake of Hitler’s persecution of the Jews, the teenaged Cornelia was transplanted in America, where she could pursue her dream in safety, although not without having to struggle to carve out a place for herself in the male-dominated world of her chosen profession. This 96-page biography tells her remarkable life’s story, complete with photographs and plans for the imaginative playgrounds and the innovative museum and embassy grounds she has created around the world, and for green rooftops, her latest passion. Young readers will not only learn about the profession, but also will find inspiration in Cornelia Hahn Oberlander’s love for the natural world and the respect and concern she shows for our increasingly fragile environment.

Editorial Reviews

From School Library Journal

Grade 5–8—In a clear style, Stinson relates the life of the landscape architect. Inspired by her grandmother's garden, Oberlander decided upon her future career by age 11. By 1939, life for her Jewish family in Hitler's Germany had become so difficult that she and her family immigrated to America. Average-quality, black-and-white photographs (full-page and small) on nearly every spread provide a picture of her personal growth as a student, wife, and artist as she persevered in achieving her lifelong goals. Photographs of her various projects and models as well as her favorite plants are included, though some of the pictures lack adequate contrast. Reproductions of her drawings and environmentally innovative plans incorporating green roofs and the use of mounds are interspersed throughout. Vibrant and creative well into her 80s, Oberlander is an inspiring example of filling a life with what you love.—Frances E. Millhouser, formerly at Chantilly Regional Library, Fairfax County, VA
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About the Author

Kathy Stinson was born in Toronto. She was a mail sorter, elementary school teacher, and a waitress before she turned her hand to writing. It was a wise decision. She wrote Red Is Best and Big Or Little. Since then, she has had over thirty titles published for a wide range of audiences. Kathy Stinson has two grown-up children, two grown-up stepchildren, and five grandchildren. She lives with her partner, Peter Carver, near Rockwood, Ontario.

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 14 and up
  
• Hardcover: 96 pages
• Publisher: Tundra Books; First edition (April 8, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0887768040
• ISBN-13: 978-0887768040
• Product Dimensions: 7.4 x 0.6 x 9.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,340,051 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

The clue that Kathy Stinson has enjoyed a lifelong love of reading is in the wide range of books she has written. "What you read," she says, "influences what you write. And so does the day to day life that you live."

That's why Kathy's characters ride bikes along dirt paths, fall in love in summer, argue and have cozy chats with parents and friends, sometimes have trouble sleeping, and walk on beaches and city streets.

Kathy says, "It's also fun, as a writer, to imagine yourself into situations unlike your own." That's what she did when she wrote about Marie-Claire living through a smallpox epidemic in Montreal in 1885, and Mr. Elliot deciding as a grandfather that it's time he learned to read.

Kathy sorted mail, waited tables, and taught school before finally figuring out what she really wanted to do was write - everything from picture books to young adult novels, from biography to historical fiction. Readers never know what kind of book to expect from her next!

Kathy has served as Writer-in-Residence for several library systems in southern Ontario and has led writing workshops all across Canada.

Kathy is the mother of two grown children, who inspired some of her earliest books. She also has two grown stepdaughters and five grandchildren. If she's out buying them a present, chances are it's in a bookstore she'll be shopping. Of course!

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4.0 out of 5 stars Love Every Leaf, September 23, 2008

By 

Jewish Book World Magazine (New York, NY) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Love Every Leaf: The Life of Landscape Architect Cornelia Hahn Oberlander (Hardcover)

It was a pleasure to be introduced to Cornelia Hahn Oberlander through Love Every Leaf. In our normal daily events, her name would not usually cross paths with most people's lives. Yet, the truth is, this one woman has had a profound impact on how humanity has been engaged with the environment for years and she is responsible for many of the major developments in playground, park, city and private landscape architecture and planning. Stinson documents Oberlander's personal life, her childhood in Berlin, Germany and her migration to the United States in 1939 at the age of 18. The book builds upon the events of her life while weaving her passion for children, their need for unstructured play and landscape architecture, which results in the biography of a thoughtful, responsible and progressive woman, who was far ahead of her time. The concepts of play, good earthly stewardship and conservation that Oberlander sought to promote are apparent in each personal and professional decision that Stinson chooses to highlight. The reader must be prepared for Stinson's injections of information on the current events of the times, which call for a mature historical knowledge base in order to segue into the text. Ages 12 & up. Reviewed by Christine Maasdaam