That time of year for lessons in environment
As the Go Green! movement continues to grow, the Camden Children's Garden invites you to celebrate Earth and Arbor Days as part of its Second and Fourth Saturdays series.
As the Go Green! movement continues to grow, the Camden Children's Garden invites you to celebrate Earth and Arbor Days as part of its Second and Fourth Saturdays series.
A theatrical presentation, Eco Dave's Environmental Show, will be offered at 2 p.m. to show how human habits affect habitats. Throughout the day, members of the Youth Environmental Advocate Program - an employment and job-training program for young people from the Camden area - will roam the 4.5 acres of gardens teaching visitors easy ways to help save the Earth. Families can enjoy planting sunflower seeds or tree seedlings in recycled planters to take home for their own gardens, along with other activities, including a ladybug release and composting lessons. Representatives of the Starbucks Foundation, which supports the youth program, will distribute beverages to all the environmental stewards in attendance.
A children's classic
The contrasting worlds imagined in Lois Lowry's Newbery Medal-winning novel,
The Giver,
are re-created for the stage at the People's Light & Theatre Company.
The Giver
tells of Jonas, who on his 12th birthday discovers that the sameness of the community has cost its members a sense of self, family and love. Regarded by many as a children's classic,
The Giver
"encourages us to see that even though we aren't all the same, we are all connected and how that connection can inspire important understanding and empathy," says director David Bradley.
Bradley believes the story has been popular with adolescent audiences because "young people understand the pressures of conformity." He has been told that post-show discussions, a feature of the Family Discovery series at People's Light, "inspire the best car-ride and dinner conversations afterward," a value absent in Jonas' world.
"We're thinking about safety a lot in our world these days," Bradley says, "but this story gets us to think about what is most worth protecting - our capacity for learning, curiosity, invention and love."
A hello to jazz
Children's author Andy Blackman Hurwitz will visit Big Blue Marble Bookstore in Mount Airy to read from
Philly Joe Giraffe's Jungle Jazz
, the latest in his series of books that introduce toddlers to famous jazz musicians and musical concepts.
Philly Joe Giraffe's Jungle Jazz features a young giraffe (named after jazz great Philly Joe Jones) who journeys through the African jungle with his drum, telling animals along the way about a concert on the lake, which proves to be the coolest jungle jam ever. Local jazz musicians will perform as the author autographs copies of the book.