#donna thomas

National Mushroom Day 2021

It’s National Mushroom Day! This is A Mushroom ABC by Peter and Donna Thomas. Published in 2001 in Santa Cruz, A Mushroom ABC was printed on handmade paper made by Peter Thomas in an edition of 50 copies, and features mushroom-shaped covers and pages. Donna Thomas, who wrote the text and made the illustrations, describes making the book in an entry for our digital exhibit: 

“I had recently met William Rubles, who lives in Santa Cruz and co-wrote Mushrooms Demystified. He taught me to identify a few local edible mushrooms. I started mushroom hunting and this book was inspired by the beauty of the mushrooms I was seeing. I cut the accordion text like I would to make a chain of paper dolls, but did it in the shape of a mushroom, then I also cut mushroom shapes out of cardboard for the covers.”

There are over 10,000 known types of mushrooms and mycologists think that’s just a fraction of the mushrooms that are out there! Mushrooms and fungi are fascinating and mysterious to me, and I think they definitely deserve their day!