Perhaps if I had read The Curious Garden by Peter Brown when I was five years old, I may have studied landscape architecture instead. Watching my kids get excited by their books reminds me that I “discovered” the design and planning professions well after I established my career. The weeds eventually take over the whole city. “The Wiley books have sold more than 120,000 copies, and continue to sell well nearly 20 years after publication, so they have by far been the most popular books I’ve ever written,” Michael says.Ī little boy nurtures a few weeds on an old elevated railway. Michael wrote a series of children’s book published by Wiley in 1993: Architecture Counts, Architecture Colors, Architecture Shapes, and Architecture Animals in 2000 he wrote Arches to Zigzags which was published by Abrams. Five of these are specifically for children. Michael Crosbie, FAIA, who is currently the associate dean, architecture department chair, and associate professor at the University of Hartford and also edits Faith & Form magazine, has written more than 20 books on architecture. What is curious about this short list is that designers and planners love to publish books – but often these books are more effective as marketing tools for their services than as revenue generators from their royalties. (You can find my assuredly incomplete list of children’s books on landscape, architecture, planning and otherwise urban-related topics at the end of this post.)Ī story about a talented little boy who builds architecture out of everything from chalk to dirty diapers. However disappointed I was by the brevity of my list, books like Iggy Peck, Architect by Andrea Beaty and The Little House by Virginia Burton have been inducted into our nightly favorites. With the exception of the immense stock of books about construction, trucks, trains and planes, there are relatively few stories about the professions and interests of the designers and planners or about the shape and functions of cities, buildings, communities, neighborhoods and parks themselves. This prompted an unofficial research project on children’s books about the built environment. So naturally, I try to select books on topics that are also interesting to me (after all, I’m equally invested in reading these). One book can lead to the insistence that we read tens more on the same topic. One book can spark a new interest that lasts days, months – even years. The way my kids respond to books has shown me the power within their pages. Seuss and Roald Dahl and the clever stories and terms that Mo Willems churns. I love the nostalgia and silliness of Dr. I have two kids, ages almost 6 and 3, and while they love reading books, I enjoy reading their books as much if not more than they do. Mo Willems’ depiction of Trixie going “boneless”

McFig & McFly by Henrik Drescher