Watch This Space: Designing, Defending and Sharing Public Spaces

by Hadley Dyer, Marc Ngui (Illustrator)

This unique and timely book introduces youth to what public space is, why it is important and how best to use it. It also underscores the need to create, preserve and protect public space. Readers will learn what makes successful public spaces work, the ins and outs of sharing and designing them, the issues surrounding teenagers in public spaces and much more. Watch This Space answers the question, Why is public space important? It's important because this space belongs to all of us.

Genres: Nonfiction, Architecture, Childrens, Social Issues

80 pages, Hardcover

First published March 1, 2010

About the author

Hadley Dyer is the author of Here So Far Away, Johnny Kellock Died Today, winner of the Canadian Library Association's Book of the Year for Children Award, and other acclaimed titles for children and young adults. She has worked in the children’s book industry for more than twenty years and for multiple organizations promoting the cause of literacy and reading, including CODE, IBBY Canada, and the Canadian Children's Book Centre. Raised in the Annapolis Valley, Nova Scotia, she now resides in Toronto.

Reviews

[Donalyn · Rating 5 out of 5]

Everything you wanted to know about the history, design, and importance of public spaces. This book will inspire young people to explore the public spaces in their communities and work to keep these spaces free, clean, and safe.

[Natalie Cheetham · Rating 2 out of 5]

another quick read. again, i cannot picture teens flocking to this title. it's interesting, and while space is definitely a topic of interest to teens, i just don't think that it would grab and hold their attention enough to garner many fans. the short segments, bullets and illustrations definitely help to make it less "school-ish" but i don't think that the topic, in and of itself, is interesting enough.

[Christopher Garth · Rating 3 out of 5]

Do you like playing Minecraft? Wanna step up your game with some more challenging approaches? Watch this Space: Designing, Defending and Sharing Public Spaces is a good way to understand what public space is all about and how its been designed. It's also a good read for how teenagers and public space relate to one another. This is a non-fiction work and only 80 pages long. But reading it will go a long way to making your "worlds" better.

[Heidi · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read this in 2021, so some of the references were outdated (Myspace?). Overall, I loved the content and format, but wish things like the design-it-yourself activity at the end was available to download/print.

[Karen Ball · Rating 3 out of 5]

"What is public space, exactly? It is a place that anyone may enter freely -- young or old, rich or poor. Public spaces belong to everyone and no one in particular."
This is an amazing book -- it travels the world to show you how public spaces are used in different countries and cultures, from ancient Rome and Mesopotamia up to the present day. Parks and public plazas are the most common kind of public space, but libraries, museums and monuments can also function as public spaces (usually with a few rules about respectful behavior). There are lots of reasons why some public spaces are more successful than others: traffic, buildings, trees and plants, available activities, and interesting design all add up to a useful and pleasant space for people. There are colorful illustrations of sample spaces from around the world, including Skatepark Westblaak in the Netherlands, JFK Park in Philadelphia, Federation Square in Melbourne, Australia, and AL-Azhar Park in Cairo, Egypt. Each of these has a brief description of how it was developed into a beautiful space for residents and visitors. Not all attempts to create public space are successful, and the authors don't shy away from discussing some of those examples, and reasoning through the failures. We can often learn as much or more from those experiences than from the more successful ones. Readers are challenged at the end to design their own version of a public space! With tips and suggestions for getting involved in community spaces and activities, this is a well-designed, engaging read about a topic that's had little play at this level. Excellent illustrations, colored sidebars and boxes, and playful page design all work together to draw readers into the text and ideas. Very cool! Grade 6 and up.

[Canadian Children's Book Centre · Rating 5 out of 5]

Reviewed by Mary Ann Cree

This is an important and timely book that looks at public spaces – those places you can go to meet friends and hang out, places that are not privately owned, places where everyone is welcome. It is a very readable and well-written book that provides a good starting point for a discussion of urban design.

Author Hadley Dyer (her previous work includes the novel Johnny Kellock Died Today) divides her topic into four basic ideas – what is public space and why is it important, how do we share our public spaces, how can we design effective public spaces and what can we do if our public spaces are threatened. She uses different examples of public spaces around the world – the Ganges River, a skateboarding park in the Netherlands, the former dump in Soweto that has become a community hub and her own vibrant neighbourhood in downtown Toronto. These are places that encourage interaction and a sense of belonging among residents. Her focus is often on teenagers and how necessary it is for them to have a place away from home and school where they can have the freedom to explore their growing independence in a safe environment.

She concludes with some great examples of people who have worked to protect their public spaces. There is the student who has worked to get advertisements out of his school, a librarian who works with a youth advisory group, and a young man who talks about hosting fundraisers. It’s a great book from start to finish that opens our eyes to the importance of public space in building sustainable communities.

Canadian Children's Book News (Spring 2010, Vol. 33, No. 2)

[Joan · Rating 4 out of 5]

I bought this book for the library's Young Adult collection and read it over my lunch hour. It's a nice introduction for teens to the concept of public space. Dyer introduces what public space is today, talks about the history of public space as a concept and why it's important to many groups of people. The main point that I was most taken by is why it's important for teens to have public space: they don't have private space of their own.

Scattered throughout are examples of successful public spaces throughout the world (Cairo, South Africa, the Netherlands) and each one made me want to go traveling just to see them.

The book closes with some practical examples of how young people can get involved creating, defending or advocating for public spaces.

Overall, quite a lovely primer on the topic and the illustrations (by Marc Ngui) are charming. I'd recommend it for any youth library.

[Maryanne]

4Q*3P*M*S
Watch This Space: Designing Defending and Sharing Public Spaces
by Hadley Dyer
Toronto: Kids Can Press (2010)
80 pages
Grades 4-10
2011 Excellence in Non-fiction nominee
Nonfiction

With its focus on an unusual topic, this book does an unusually good job of providing historical and contemporary information about the use, design, and issues surrounding public spaces without being text heavy. The magazine style provides plenty of illustrations and interesting side bars as to why public spaces are important and how to protect them. With new rules imposing curfews and limits on group sizes at malls, this book may give teens some ideas of how to become involved in creating and maintaining public spaces. The cover design is appealing in its use of color and depiction of a public space. The "Watch This Space" banner in the middle of the cover will make readers wonder, "For what?"

[Abby Johnson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Teens need public spaces. Since they don't own property, they need a place to go where they can hang out with their friends, where they can see or be seen. But is a mall a public space? Is a public school a public space? And what makes a good public space anyway?

Hadley Dyer and Marc Ngui examine many different public spaces and issues surrounding public space in this visually attractive book. Teens will appreciate the sections on laws and curfews and the information about how they can get involved to create the spaces they want to have in their communities.

Read more on my blog: http://abbylibrarian.blogspot.com/201...

[David Carrasquillo · Rating 4 out of 5]

This an extremely fun book. I'm not really sure to who is it made for. Sometimes, because of the illustration, you would think it is for children. But the ideas contained would be targeted for policy-makers. I think is a book-for-everyone kind of book. Fresh ideas. Sometimes tries to be objective and impartial, sometimes it does not. Could be a text book. Check it out if you are a teacher, especially in the city. Kids could benefit to think about what Dyer brings here.

[Kelly · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a cool book to aim at teens. It's not as strong as Oldenburg's "The Great Good Place," but it hits some of the key points for the younger audience. Again, a but of an anti-American bias, but at least the authors are from Canada this time. Full review here: http://stackedbooks.blogspot.com/2010...

[Amber Johnson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved, loved, loved this book. Review to come at http://literarywife.wordpress.com.

[Edward Sullivan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting topic presented to specifically address teens. Informative, well-written, and attractively presented.

[William Crosby · Rating 5 out of 5]

Concise, clear discussion of issues regarding public spaces (including internet). Audience is teens, but good intro for others who don't know anything about this topic (like me).

[Darilyn · Rating 3 out of 5]

Chipping away at the non-fiction pile...

[tiara✧ reads❀ · Rating 5 out of 5]

It inspired me so much! I love it!