"After many years of our volunteer parent design team working together on the PS 40 yearbook, 2022 was our swan song. The majority of us are graduating out of the school. We have become very close friends over the years and we all agreed that we wanted this book to be super inspiring, uplifting and beautiful as a tribute to the resiliency of these kids and all they have been through over the past two and a half years. Nature and outdoors represents not only beauty and adventure, but also safety these days. We wanted to give the kids a sense of something realistic to look forward to -summer trips, field trips being re-instated and the sense of adventure as they go out in the new world of middle school. We also agreed that we wanted to make the kids laugh and make it playful with adorable animals scattered throughout the book, bringing smiles to so many children's faces. This book was a labor of love. So many of our students peruse the yearbook all year long for many years. We wanted to do our part to provide them with a resource that is optimistic, happy and makes a positive impact on their mental health."