Books related to Goal 11: Sustainable Cities & Communities
Parks for the People
Growing up on a Connecticut farm in the 1800s, Frederick Olmsted loved roaming the outdoors. A contest to design the nation's first city park opened new doors for Olmsted when his winning design became New York's Central Park, just one of Olmsted's ideas that changed our nation's cities.
Urban Sprawl
Non-fiction
Looks at how the growth and development of modern cities and suburbs causes problems for people, plants, and animals.
Drowned City
On August 29, 2005, Hurricane Katrina's monstrous winds and surging water overwhelmed the protective levees around low-lying New Orleans, Louisiana. Eighty percent of the city flooded, in some places under twenty feet of water. One thousand eight hundred and thirty-three people lost their lives. The riveting tale of this historic storm and the drowning of an American city is one of selflessness, heroism, and courage--and also of incompetence, racism, and criminality.
Trash
In an unnamed Third World country, in the not-so-distant future, three "dumpsite boys" make a living picking through the mountains of garbage on the outskirts of a large city. One unlucky-lucky day, Raphael finds something very special and very mysterious. So mysterious that he decides to keep it, even when the city police offer a handsome reward for its return. It's up to Raphael, Gardo, and Rat--boys who have no education, no parents, no homes, and no money--to solve the mystery and right a terrible wrong. Andy Mulligan has written a powerful story about unthinkable poverty--and the kind of hope and determination that can transcend it.
Wildheart
Told for the first time in a graphic novel, this is the exciting life story of John Muir, who became an inventor, an explorer, a bold champion of wilderness--and even made friends with a president! His heart was always in the outdoors and he aimed to experience all he could. Most importantly, though, John Muir told the world about the wonders of nature. His words made a difference and inspired people in many countries to start protecting planet Earth-- and they still do.