Children, Youth and Environments 23(2), 2013 Cultivating Outdoor Classrooms: Designing and Implementing ChildCentered Learning Environments Eric Nelson (2012). St. Paul, MN: Redleaf Press, 203 pages. $49.95 USD (paperback). ISBN 978-1-60554-025-2. Close your eyes, take a deep breath, and relax. Clear your mind of thoughts. Try to recall the earliest time you can remember being outdoors. Where were you? What were you doing? Who were you with? How did you feel? What did you hear? What did you smell? What did you see? What was the value of that experience? (Nelson 2012, 13) Do children today have similar experiences? Do you think they should? Eric Nelson delivers a compelling argument that children today are facing an escalating “silent emergency” of challenges, with negative impacts not only for children, but for society as a whole. Writing from an educator’s perspective, Nelson’s experience is framed by his time working in Southern California developing the Outdoor Classroom—which is not only a place, but a philosophy. Cultivating Outdoor Classrooms: Designing and Implementing Child-Centered Learning Environments encourages a way of thinking about children’s environments as synergetic places, where indoor and outdoor spaces constitute a single learning environment. Through well-organized, straightforward text and fabulous photographs, the book offers educators and parents alike inspiration and ideas for ways to enhance outdoor spaces for children’s learning. The goal of the Outdoor Classroom is uncomplicated: simply “to increase the quantity, quality and benefit of outdoor experiences for children” (8). While many other early childhood professionals offer the same advice as Nelson—get kids outside, for longer periods of time—Cultivating Outdoor Classrooms successfully bridges the gap between the oft-heard “why” and the seldom-articulated “how.” By streamlining the overall vision while acknowledging the challenges ahead, Nelson defines the key steps for readers to successfully imagine, plan, implement, and utilize their own Outdoor Classroom. Working from short- to long-term, the book effectively introduces and guides the reader through development strategies, including stakeholder buy-in, establishing a plan, setting priorities, creating action steps, and evaluation. The book is well structured and divides a rather complex process into manageable steps that keep the vision and goals central to the actions needed to achieve the end result—a rich, diverse, child-led and adult-supported learning environment.© 2013 Children, Youth and Environments Book Review: Cultivating Outdoor Classrooms: Designing and Implementing... 216 The roles of both teacher and child in the Outdoor Classroom are clearly defined, but perhaps some of the peripheral roles (parents, maintenance staff, and wider community) could have been explored in more depth. It would be valuable to know if Nelson encountered or developed any particular strategies that creatively engaged stakeholders in these roles. Particularly well defined are the Outdoor Classroom’s three linchpins: teaching, program design, and environment. However, these could have been further strengthened with photo captions to point out key design details or programming strategies that proved particularly effective. This may have proved more informative than the appendix at the end of the book, which, through a single photograph and bullet point text, attempts to address common play yard design flaws. A more carefully articulated picture of poor-quality outdoor environments would help readers identify places for improvement in their own spaces and would also help educate both teachers and design professionals on the value of highquality , well designed Outdoor Classrooms. For those interested in beginning to rethink how children learn outdoors, or even those who have taken steps already to naturalize their outdoor spaces, Cultivating Outdoor Classrooms: Designing and Implementing Child-Centered Learning Environments will serve as an essential guide to step-by-step improvement. Review by Sarah Werner Konradi Sarah Konradi holds a BFA from Savannah College of Art and Design, and a MLA from North Carolina State University. She is a Design Associate at the Natural Learning Initiative, part of a diverse team focusing at the community level to improve children’s health and development through design education and technical assistance for the implementation of naturalized outdoor learning environments. She is involved in the programming and design of a wide range of outdoor spaces, including childcare centers, schools, parks, and nonformal...