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★ Beginner’s Guide to Kirigami:
24 Skill-Building Projects Using
Origami and Papercrafting Skills
Ghylenn Descamps, trans. from the French by
Donna Vekteris. Design Originals, $14.99 trade
paper (96p) ISBN 978-1-4971-0016-9
Descamps, creative designer for the
magazine Marie Claire Idées, delivers an
inviting and well-organized introduction
to the Japanese art of paper cutting and
folding. Kirigami, she explains, combines
the better-known practice of origami with
an intricate form of paper cutting in order
to create delicate three-dimensional objects.
Keeping newbies firmly in mind,
Descamps provides detailed instructions
on everything from choosing the right kind
of paper to properly holding the various
cutting tools. Helpfully, she organizes the
projects by difficulty level, from easy to
highly intricate, starting with a star-filled
Christmas tree and working up to lanterns,
3-D greeting cards, an “Asian temple,”
and a “Parisian bridge.” This structure
allows crafters to build up their skills
while still tackling appealing projects at
every step of the way. Descamps also
makes a winning case for kirigami as a
mindfulness aid, “an inner journey very
much like meditation, an opportunity to
breathe in a turbulent world.” This
detailed road map to creating a world of
artful and calming designs should create
many new kirigami devotees in the
American crafting community. (Sept.)
Home & Garden
Farming on the Wild Side:
The Evolution of a Regenerative
Organic Farm and Nursery
Nancy J. Hayden and John P. Hayden. Chelsea
Green, $29.95 trade paper (272p) ISBN 9781-
60358-828-7
Married couple Nancy and John Hayden
bring together her degrees in biology,
ecology, and creative writing and his in
entomology in this remarkable biography
of The Farm Between, their 18 acres in
the foothills of Northern Vermont’s Green
Mountains. The farm has evolved over 25
years, and so have they: “It’s important
that all of us keep trying to make positive
changes to our food system.” The Haydens
started by managing livestock and
employing draft horses to work their
organic vegetable garden, but they later
turned their operation into an organic
fruit farm and pollinator sanctuary. They
discuss committing themselves to make
food production “more environmentally
sound, economically viable, and socially
just.” In their
case, that’s
meant adapting
no-till soil prac-
tices in order to
preserve soil
quality, fighting
monoculture
mentality (they
plant less
common berry
varieties, such
as aronia, elderberries, and red, black, and
clove currants), and planning for the
increased incidence of extreme weather
due to climate change. The Haydens are
especially instructive on all things insect-
related, discussing beekeeping and pesti-
cide-free pest control. Readily admitting
to mistakes made in their evolution to
regenerative stewards, the Haydens will
delight anyone interested in modern-day
organic agriculture with this detailed
history of one farm’s progress. (Sept.)The Healing Power of Plants:
The Hero Houseplants That
Will Love You Back
Fran Bailey. Sterling, $14.95 (192p) ISBN 978-
1-4549-3674-9
In this pleasant but thin primer, horti-
culturist Bailey, proprietor of London’s
Fresh Flower Company and plant store
Forest, offers a visual gallery of houseplants
with advice on how “to learn to care for
them, and in turn let them care for you.”
Each plant receives a large close-up, cou-
pled with a brief overview and bullet-points
addressing its needs, such as concerning
exposure to light, humidity level, and
watering. Themed chapters identify the
plants’ benefits, as with “plants for a
breath of fresh air” (“when NASA needed
the most effective air-cleaning plants for
their space stations the Snake Plant,
Bamboo Palm, and the humble ivy came
top of the list”) though the book’s more
extraordinary claims for how plants can
reduce insomnia, blood pressure, and
injury recovery time, among other feats,
are never substantiated. In addition to
species profiles and health advice, Bailey
also dispenses tips on choosing plants,keeping them healthy, and facilitating
their propagation. The sleek layout, with
lots of white space around the text and
photos, seems better suited for a website,
while McLeod’s editorial-style photographs
tend to evoke a mood rather than specific
characteristics of a plant. This is more an
attractively designed collection of photos
than a truly informative reference guide.
(Sept.)Religion/Spirituality
Exactly as You Are:
The Life and Faith of Mister Rogers
Shea Tuttle. Eerdmans, $23.99 (184p)
ISBN 978-0-8028-7655-3
Theologian Tuttle (Can I Get a
Witness?) mixes anecdotes, analysis, and
theological exploration in this delightful
biography of Fred Rogers. In the first
third, she follows Rogers’s life from
awkward, sickly child growing up in
Latrobe, Penn.; through college at
Rollins Collins; and the beginnings of
his career in television. While Tuttle’s
beginning grafts many religious over-
tones onto Rogers’s run-of-the-mill
Christian upbringing, the remaining
two-thirds build a striking and coherent
image of Rogers’s faith with impressive
close readings of episodes of Mr. Rogers’
Neighborhood, interviews, and writings
plucked from Rogers’s career. The com-
parison of Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood to
parables and the connection between
Rogers’s focus on emotion and the
Incarnation in his personal beliefs are
especially poignant. Tuttle provides a
clear sense of the religious origins of
Rogers’s progressivism and its limits by
showing how he gently pushed against
gender norms and urged racial integration,
but also insisted the gay actor playing
Officer Clemmons remain closeted.
There is a reverence in how Tuttle
describes Rogers’s actions and beliefs,
but she avoids hagiography by showing
some of her subject’s shortcomings, such
as his perfectionism and persistent
avoidance of conflict. Tuttle’s satisfying
biography provides a keen sense of the
deeply religious forces behind a classic
TV show and its widely lauded creator.
(Oct.)