The Franklin Library holds books that earn their place — works anchored in the conviction that direct experience is the highest teacher. Greg Gudorf's debut speaks that language fluently. Two brothers, one summer, a creek, a dog, and ten moments that require them to choose who they want to be. It belongs here because it does what Tymmber Outdoor exists to do: it makes the case — through story — that going outside changes you.
Set in the creekside hills surrounding Lake Poway, California, The Poway Creek Summer follows two brothers through ten chapters of outdoor adventure that are, at bottom, ten chances to grow up. The creek is the stage. The lessons are permanent. The dog carries the stick.
Each chapter takes its name from a thing — a wasp nest, a broken fence, a red marble, a shortcut — and each one opens a question that has no simple answer. What do you do with words once they're out? When do you tell a parent the embarrassing thing? What does it mean to have enough? These are not abstract ethics. They are the ethics of being outside in the world with other people, which is the only kind that sticks.
Greg Gudorf wrote this book from the place where faith, family, and the outdoors converge — which is, not coincidentally, exactly where Tymmber Outdoor operates. It is illustrated by FLOW and was created in collaboration with Magis AI and Claude.
Tymmber Outdoor holds a simple thesis: time spent outside changes people. Children who grow up with creeks, trails, and open sky develop a different relationship with difficulty, with patience, and with the natural world than those who don't. The Poway Creek Summer is evidence of that thesis, rendered as story. Every chapter places the brothers in a situation that the indoors cannot produce — and requires a choice that screen time cannot teach.
Greg Gudorf built a forty-year career connecting people to technology that changed how they spend their time. He came to Tymmber because he believes the most important pivot in that work is getting people back outside. This book is the same conviction delivered to the generation that needs it most: the kids who will either inherit the outdoors or forget it exists.