Let's Build a Playground

Gr 3-6--KaBOOM is a nonprofit organization dedicated to the concept that all children deserve a safe place to play. The group facilitates partnerships between communities and businesses to build, maintain, and upgrade play areas in urban locations throughout the United States. Many of them are built with neighborhood support and labor in one day. This book recounts the building of one of these playgrounds in Indianapolis. A local charter school had a disintegrating play area and KaBOOM worked with parents, faculty, administration, and, most importantly, with children to plan, pay for, and build an appropriate playground. In a singsong style, the text chronicles the machines and people who do the planning and preliminary foundation work. The size of the project is described by using measurements familiar to children-with their own size, weight, and reach as basis. The children were encouraged to use their imaginations in choosing the colors and types of equipment and here the manufacturing process is also illustrated. Many volunteers worked to complete the project, and the process was documented by an on-site photographer whose work is the basis for many of the illustrations. The finished playground is a fine culmination showing what a community working together can achieve. However, the vital process of fundraising and bringing about business involvement is greatly simplified and may not show a completely realistic picture of the undertaking. Of possible use in building concepts of community organization and cooperation to bring positive results.--Eva Elisabeth VonAncken, formerly at Trinity-Pawling School, Pawling, NY