In A Play Book , part memoir-part manifesto, a creative writing professor with three decades of experience taps into tales from her classroom and own childhood to highlight the steady decline in unsupervised play, intellectual flow, and reflection and what it all means for our democracy. The author picks up watercolor painting to add whimsy to her creative process and finds herself penning a collection of flash nonfiction essays and illustrations that make clear what she does with her students is about so much more than writing and vital for all citizens. As one outside reviewer states, the book is a “much-needed antidote to what is making us all, young and old, feel cut off from our senses, our creativity, our courage and our common humanity.”