Readers of all ages can celebrate Spokane’s seasonal traditions and cultural history with a lively and warmhearted new picture book

Tucked behind the Looff Carrousel and encircled by trees, Spokane’s Garbage Goat resides in a shadowy grotto, almost blending in with the surrounding rocks.

Most pass on by the metal sculpture, but every once in a while, a family stops in front of the steps and approaches the peculiar metal creature.

A parent might begin to explain the Garbage Goat to their young child, leaning in close and pointing to the sculpture’s jagged edges. The child then picks up a leaf or a small wrapper and places their hand under the Garbage Goat’s mouth as their parent presses a large button on a wall nearby.

A cacophony of whirring and excited yelps fills the air as a core memory is made.

Like many other iconic structures in Riverfront Park, the Garbage Goat serves as a reminder of Spokane’s hosting of the 1974 World’s Fair. Garbage Goat’s creator, Sister Paula Mary Turnbull, was a sculptor and an educator known as the “welding nun.” Turnbull was appointed to the Expo Visual Arts Advisory Committee and helped coordinate more than a dozen pieces of public art in Riverfront Park, including her own garbage-eating billy goat. Its vacuum mechanism enables small pieces of garbage to be sucked up through the sculpture’s mouth — an apt design for an environmentally themed World’s Fair.

Local author Megan Young, a Spokane native who grew up feeding the Garbage Goat, explores Spokane’s rich regional history and the Garbage Goat’s ongoing impact in her new children’s book, Kid and the Nothing-to-Do Year.

Young explains that since the Garbage Goat has been around for over 50 years, she thought it was time to give him a friend. So in the book, released last month, she pays homage to the Garbage Goat through the eyes of Kid, a little white goat who explores favorite Spokane events and locations over the course of a year.

The author says exploring Riverfront Park is a formative experience for countless local kids.

“I took my daughter to the carousel for the first time when she turned 1,” Young says. “And there was nothing really there I wanted to bring home with us from [the gift shop]. Something was missing. It got me thinking about what I could share.”

Young began searching the internet for Spokane history and came across a page of old official slogans as well as citizen-created city motto ideas. One of the latter was the quirky phrase “Keep Spokane Kind of Gross,” which Young found disheartening. Eventually she found herself down a rabbit hole about Turnbull and her role in local history.

Soon after, Young met the book’s illustrator, Melissa Murakami. The artist also created illustrations for a locally made board game called New Kingdom: Gardeners, and was introduced to Young by the game’s creator, Jack Dunbar. Young says she knew Murakami was the right illustrator for Kid and the Nothing-to-Do Year because her work is whimsical and engaging.

Despite living in Spokane for four years while attending Whitworth University and studying art, however, Murakami had never explored Riverfront Park or much of Spokane’s downtown area.

“We were talking about Turnbull and all of this public artwork that’s downtown,” Young says. “Melissa said she wasn’t really exposed to that. And I think most people kind of fall into that category.”

Initially, Young wanted to explore the history of the Garbage Goat and release the book in time for Expo’s 50th anniversary earlier this year, but that idea turned out to be too ambitious. Instead, she made the Garbage Goat a central character in Kid and the Nothing-to-Do Year.

“I don’t always say yes to projects like this,” Murakami says. “But I really believed in the project from the beginning and Megan’s passion for it.”

The book begins with a conversation between Kid and the Garbage Goat.

“One morning in the heart of Spokane, a young goat flopped onto the ground,” it reads. “Kid huffed. Kid sighed. Kid gave the side eye.”

The latter part of this passage is repeated several times throughout the book, beginning each of Kid’s seasonal adventures after he loudly proclaims his boredom. In response, the Garbage Goat encourages Kid to go explore, and off he goes.

In the summer, Kid leaves the Garbage Goat’s grotto and traverses through Riverfront Park. He explores the Looff Carrousel, the Numerica SkyRide, the Big Red Wagon and the Pavilion before returning to the Garbage Goat, exhausted from his adventures.

In the fall, Kid travels up to Green Bluff, where he waits in the notoriously long pumpkin donut line. In winter he leaves the grotto to traverse deep snow, and finds himself at the Vista House atop Mt. Spokane. He sleds down the mountain and back to the Garbage Goat’s cozy corner, where he shares stories about the day with his beloved metal friend.

Readers can feel Kid’s excitement as the illustrations seem to jump off the page, inviting them to explore Spokane along with the sprightly Kid.

“Megan brought a lot of passion for the city,” Murakami says. “It was contagious and transferred to me. I’m really grateful for my Spokane experience. I was trying to make the audience feel the place when they see it.”

Having moved from Spokane to Bellevue after graduation, Murakami relied heavily on Google Maps for reference images of the places showcased in the book.

“That is sort of the essence of this book,” Murakami says. “It’s kind of a love letter to Spokane. And so the fact that it exists somewhere in between my memory and what it is now feels right for the audience.”

In the book, Riverfront Park’s beloved lilac-colored Expo ’74 butterfly resembles its original design, before it was restored in October 2023 for Expo’s 50th anniversary.

“A lot of that is intentional,” Young says. “Because as much as this is like a Polaroid of the present, it has a lot of nods to the past. It makes it feel like it can reach multiple audiences. Kids today are gonna see this and recognize it along with people our age and older generations as well.”

Murakami says that when she visited Spokane after completing the illustrations for Kid, finally seeing the Garbage Goat in person felt like meeting a celebrity.

Young, on the other hand, felt like she used her innate Spokane knowledge while writing the book.

“I am extremely curious by nature,” she says. “So as soon as I find a tidbit about something I go down a rabbit hole pretty far. As far down as I can go!”

This curiosity is highlighted in small details of several illustrations which non-Spokanites might miss. Young and Murakami collaborated closely to ensure the book felt authentic.

In the springtime, for example, Kid finds himself running Bloomsday with a pack of fellow Bloomies to quell his boredom. Look closely and you might notice that a few of the runners’ faces look familiar.

The formation is also positioned just like the “The Joy of Running Together” sculpture by David Govedare in Riverfront Park. The man at the front is Don Kardong, Bloomsday’s founder. His bib is number 577, representing May 1977, the date of the inaugural race. Another runner dons a red T-shirt with a vulture on the chest. Real Bloomies may recognize him as the Doomsday Hill vulture, Bill Robinson.

“Throughout the creation of the book I was able to find out more information about things like Bloomsday and Hoopfest,” Young says. “Things that I had genuinely taken for granted because I had known it my whole life. There are people that spearheaded those things, and now they’re just a part of Spokane culture.”

Murakami made an intentional choice to keep the Garbage Goat in his stone grotto and in his natural position throughout most of the illustrations.

“His neck will move, and he looks in different directions, but you’ll never see him doing anything but standing there,” she says.

“But he’s still so animated,” Young adds. “And that was the hope for this book. You have a beloved pet, but you go and see him and he is gruff. So I think the way Melissa illustrated him is just that heart that he represents of Spokane and that lovable aspect of him.”

The duo behind the book already have plans to release coloring pages and special social media posts to commemorate events happening in Spokane in the coming months.

“A large part of this project is hopefully to continue it,” Young says. “This is the tip of the iceberg.”

Local residents can stop by Auntie’s Bookstore, the Northwest Museum of Arts and Culture, and Wishing Tree Books to purchase ($22) the book as well as pick up “Treats for Spokane’s Garbage Goat,” little pieces of paper printed with soda cans to feed to the Garbage Goat.

“The whole point is to really connect with kids and families and showcase why Spokane is so wonderful,” Young says. “I’m hoping that this connects that heart piece and provides a little bit more of why these things are important to children. I want to tell them why Hoopfest and Manito Park are important. There’s so much, and once you know the ‘why,’ you can fully appreciate how it makes you feel and how you might be connected to it.”

Kid and the Nothing-to-Do Year speaks to the enduring legacy of the Garbage Goat and the evolving but unique culture of Spokane over the past 50 years.

“I think it further showcases what Spokane has to offer everyone and how deeply it is rooted,” Young says. “Whether your experience is a lifetime, four years or a quick visit.”

Near the end of the book when it’s summertime again, Kid realizes a whole year has passed since he began his adventures. He returns to the Garbage Goat’s grotto and proclaims that he’s done everything and there’s simply nothing left to do, when he’s suddenly interrupted by a basketball bouncing by.

Kid bounds away onto the courts of Hoopfest, Spokane’s annual three-on-three basketball tournament, and watches balls swoosh through nets and bounce up and down the city streets.

He returns to the grotto one last time, when the Garbage Goat asks what Kid’s favorite part of his very busy, fun-filled year was.

“Being here with you,” Kid replies. “Thank you for always being there for me.”

“And I always will be,” the Garbage Goat promises. ♦

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