The Last Child in the Woods: Saving Our Children from Nature-Deficit Disorder

200 Children, Youth and Environments Vol. 16 No. 1 (2006) ISSN: 1546-2250 Last Child in the Woods: Saving our Children from Nature-Deficit Disorder Louv, Richard (2005). Chapel Hill: Algonquin Books; 336 pages. $24.95. ISBN 1565123913. Author and journalist Richard Louv’s stated purpose here is to document the radical transformation of the culture in which American children grow up, a transformation in which “young people are being taught to avoid direct experience in nature.” The New York Times review of this book (McKee 2005) alluded to the unsettling implications of these changes in the review title, “Growing up Denatured.” Indeed, what is winning this book popular attention is the catchy term “nature…