Golden Gate Park, an A to Z Adventure

Gr 1-5–To celebrate Golden Gate Park’s 150th anniversary, the San Francisco Parks Alliance and West Margin Press have collaborated to publish this colorful, alphabetical introduction. Beginning with artist Ruth Asawa, whose work can be seen in the de Young Museum, and ending with the red-striped zebra on the carousel in the Koret Children’s Quarter, there are many things to see and do in the three-mile-long park. Each page includes a short paragraph describing an attraction. There’s a Shakespeare Garden, a Dahlia Garden, a Botanical Garden, and a Tea Garden; the California Academy of Science; Stow Lake where herons nest; a Model Yacht Club on Spreckels Lake, hidden statues, and a Dutch windmill. Wertz fills each page with flat, stylized images done in vibrant poster colors—pink, turquoise, green, yellow, and purple—with a screen-print texture. The playful design adds to the appeal of this wide-ranging guide to a popular urban park, larger, even, than New York City’s Central Park to which it’s often compared. For San Franciscans, and those planning a visit, especially with children, this book suggests a number of intriguing explorations.