The new Stanley Park Companion (Bluefield $24.95) by Paul Grant and Laurie Dickson is about humans, penguins and all the other attractions of Canada's second-largest urban park (eclipsed only by Nose Hill Park in Calgary). Formerly the home and burial ground for Coast Salish people, it boasts an aquarium that contains the largest number of live specimens of any aquarium in North America. Sources for The Stanley Park Companion include the City Archives' pamphlet on the Naming, Opening and Dedication of Stanley Park 1888-1889 and Capilano College's Environmental Science Program publication Beaver Lake Ecological Studies, Vol. 2. It's a varied, well-designed and vibrant book that manages to celebrate Stanley Park without being cloying.

Grant was raised at Point Atkinson, in West Vancouver, where his father worked as a lighthouse keeper. He now hosts the regional jazz program Hot Air and is CBC Radio's national arts reporter in Vancouver. His partner and co-author Laurie Dickson is also a broadcaster. 1-894404-16-5

[BCBW 2003] "Stanley Park"