Nature as Nurture, a guest post by Ciera Burch

When you live in a city, green space is hard to come by.

Even in a city like D.C, where Rock Creek Park and all its lush greenery takes up a good portion of the city, it still needs to be sought out, traveled to, and made time for. It’s so easy to get lost in the metal and concrete of our daily lives, in our screens and video games and tv shows and the accompanying noise, that it’s even easier to forget what a sanctuary nature can be when we need the space and time to decompress.  

In my forthcoming novel, Camp Twisted Pine, electronics are banned at the eponymous summer camp in the Pine Barrens for that reason. Even though my main character, Naomi, isn’t terribly happy about it, I found myself a bit jealous as I wrote. I would love to go off for a few weeks and have the ability to throw myself into nature without worrying about the phantom buzz of a text in my pocket or the dreaded red bubble of an email notification. In fact, the best part of my most recent birthday was taking myself out to a waterfall a state over, turning my phone on do not disturb, and simply watching the water and listening to bird song for hours.

It was a nice day to just exist, but also to recharge. Listening to the flow of the water, I could actually focus on the small thoughts and ideas that popped into my head instead of getting distracted by my phone. I could think through plot points for projects I was stuck on and chew on half-baked ideas and story-less, character-less bits of random dialogue. In fact, on another similar day, in a different bit of nearby, sought out nature, was when I got my idea for Camp Twisted Pine.

I was surrounded by trees and wanted to give my characters the luxury of being surrounded by trees, too. And the more I thought about it, the more I wanted to make sure that the main character was someone with a love for nature, but only as she knows it—through screens and books. She’s convinced that the real deal isn’t for her because she’s never gotten to truly experience it.

Unfortunately, I think it’s a common occurrence in our daily, modern lives. A forest or a stream or even something as small as a flower that isn’t part of larger, formal landscaping isn’t part of our routine. The sound of flowing water is a thing we find on apps or on YouTube and play on a loop for a moment of calm. Nature is inaccessible to so many of us and so the role that it plays in our wellbeing and creativity has been lost or undersold or ignored.

It can also just be hard, or feel hard, to find the time to seek out nature. Whether we’re working from home or in an office, it’s hard to step away from the computer. Maybe we need to answer a mountain of emails before the end of the day or meet a certain word count goal and the idea of stepping outside for some fresh air or a walk, of going anywhere farther than the bathroom or a nearby restaurant for a bite to eat, can seem a bit silly. I’ve been guilty of that myself more often than I’d like to think about. But every time I give into the voice in the back of my head asking for sunshine and fresh air, I never regret it. I even stay outside a little longer when I can, to try and hold onto the feeling and to remember it for next time, when I need a little nudge to step away from my work or my video games or my TV.

The sun feels nice on my skin and the cool air makes taking a deep breath feel even better; letting my brain get lost in the sound of bird song for even a few minutes is a reset.

Technology is useful for so many things and so many people and I definitely wouldn’t want to live my life without it. But it’s always nice to remember that there’s a whole, natural world out there—happy to embrace me when I’m in it and waiting for me when I can’t be.

Even just the thought of nature, the anticipation, can be healing.

Meet the author

Ciera Burch (she/her/hers) is a lifelong reader and writer. She has a B.A from American University and an MFA from Emerson College. When she’s not reading or baking, she can be found playing Dungeons & Dragons, eating ice cream, and talking about diverse kids lit. While she is originally from New Jersey, she currently resides in Washington, D.C with her stuffed animals, plants, and far too many books and D&D dice. She is the author of middle-grade novels Finch House and Camp Twisted Pine, and the YA novel Something Kindred. Find Ciera online at cieraburch.com and on Instagram @cierasburch.

Book’s purchase link found here.

About Camp Twisted Pine

Whispering Pines meets Small Spaces in this spooky middle grade novel about a girl whose first summer camp experience is disrupted by a menacing creature abducting her fellow campers.

Eleven-year-old Naomi loves all things outdoors—birds and beetles, bats and bunnies—in theory. She explores nature in the best possible way: the cold, hard facts in books. So when her parents’ announcement of their impending divorce comes hand in hand with sending Naomi and her younger twin brothers to summer camp while they figure things out, it’s salt in the wound for Naomi and her avoidance of hands-on experience.

Camp Twisted Pine could be worse. The counselors are nice, and Naomi likes her cabinmates, especially Jackie, whose blunt personality and frank dislike of the camp draws Naomi in quickly. Jackie is also hard of hearing and uses a hearing aid, and the girls quickly develop a routine of sign language lessons in their free time, which Naomi sees as a welcome break when all the s’mores-making and nature walks get to be a bit much.

But the campers aren’t the only ones who roam the grounds of Camp Twisted Pine. When people start to go missing, including Jackie, Naomi has to find a way to save everyone—and herself. Her practical knowledge of the outdoors may still be rudimentary at best, but she has years of studying and the scientific method to fall back on. Can Naomi identify and stop the dangerous predator before it’s too late?

ISBN-13: 9781665930574
Publisher: Margaret K. McElderry Books
Publication date: 09/17/2024
Age Range: 8 – 12 Years

Filed under: Guest Post