This book is written with alternating sets of essays on the positive impact the natural world can have upon children, from toddlers to teenagers. As naturalists and fathers, the authors are concerned about the lack of contact urban, suburban, and even rural children have with native plants and animals. For many boys and girls, television specials are the closest they come to wild places. Even in school, nature seems to be treated as "a distant abstraction."
Nabhan and Trimble reflect upon their early experiences in the wilderness and share some of the excursions they have taken with their children in the West. They write about the way kids enjoy nest-like refuges and puttering around in the out-of-doors.
Parents have a responsibility to educate their children about the environment, the authors insist. What does this mean? They quote writer and educator Paul Sherpard who speaks of "the ark of the mind." Nabhan and Trimble want to fill that ark with animals, plants, sunsets, rocks, waves, and canyons. The Geography of Childhood celebrates the love affair between kids and the natural world and encourages adults to be their matchmakers.