Product Description

Winner of Learning magazine’s Teacher’s Choice Award

From a small town in Pennsylvania came a little girl who saw the magic in spring fog and heard the ocean’s song in her heart. This was the girl who one day would become the groundbreaking author of Silent Spring. In this engaging biography, now updated, young readers will experience the enchantment of nature as seen through the eyes of the budding naturalist, while learning about her childhood, her accomplishments, and her passion for nature. Combining Thomas Locker’s majestic artwork with Joseph Bruchac’s poetic text, Rachel Carson offers an educational and inspiring account of her life. Includes excerpts from Carson’s work and a timeline of major events.

Joseph Bruchac, co-author of The Keepers of the Earth series, is a nationally acclaimed Native American storyteller and writer who has authored more than seventy books of fiction, nonfiction, and poetry for adults and children. He lives in upstate New York.

Thomas Locker has illustrated more than thirty books, many of which he has written, including Skytree, Walking with Henry, John Muir, and Hudson: The Story of a River. His books have received many awards, including the Christopher Award, the Knickerbocker Lifetime Achievement Award, the John Burroughs Award, and The New York Times Award for best illustration.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #135703 in Books
• Published on: 2009-05-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 32 pages

Features

• ISBN13: 9781555916954
• Condition: NEW
• Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
• Click here to view our Condition Guide and Shipping Prices

From Booklist
Gr. 3-5. This handsome picture-book biography presents the life and accomplishments of Rachel Carson. After telling about Carson's childhood, her education, and her career as a writer, Bruchac writes lyrically about her love of nature, particularly the ocean, and concludes with an appreciation of her impact on the environment. Similar in format and layout to Locker's books John Muir: America's Naturalist (2003) and Walking with Henry: Based on the Life and Works of Henry David Thoreau (2002), this volume offers several lines of text on each left-hand page, facing a full-page illustration. Locker's paintings, particularly the landscapes, are dramatically lit scenes that capture the beauty and majesty of nature. The last page includes excerpts from Carson's writings about the natural world and a paragraph giving some specific biographical information, such as birth and death dates and the titles of her most famous books. A good read-aloud choice for Earth Day. Carolyn Phelan
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Review
This handsome picture-book biography presents the life and accomplishments of Rachel Carson. -- Booklist

About the Author
Joseph Bruchac, coauthor of The Keepers of the Earth series, is a nationally acclaimed Native American storyteller and writer who has authored more than 70 books of fiction, nonfiction, and poetry for adults and children. He lives in upstate New York.

Thomas Locker has illustrated more than 30 books, many of which he has written, including Skytree, Walking with Henry, John Muir, Hudson: The Story of a River, and Rembrandt and Titus. His books have received many awards, including the Christopher Award, the Knickerbocker Lifetime Achievement Award, the John Burroughs Award, and The New York Times Award for best illustration.

Customer Reviews

Introducing young students to the work of Rachel Carson
Rachel Carson's most famous book was "Silent Screen," which was translated into more than fifteen foreign languages and is considered the most influential book of the past fifty years. But she also wrote several books to teach young people about nature, including "Help Your Child to Wonder" and "A Sense of Wonder," the latter of which Thomas Locker and Joseph Bruchac incorporates into the title of this volume, "Rachel Carson: Preserving a Sense of Wonder." Larson's lyrical paintings compliment Bruchac's text in telling the story of how a young girl from a small town in Pennsylvania "saw the magic in spring fog and heard the ocean's song in her heart" and grew up to become a groundbreaking environmental author.

Most of the artwork depicts nature scenes, such as young Rachel looking a field of flowers and several nice seascapes. Often Carson is no more than a small figure in these paintings, but there is a nice portrait of Carson, leaning against a fence, with the sea behind her. This appears opposite the most important text in the book, where it is explained to young readers that Carson's book "Silent Spring" was important in helping people understand that breaking one strand in the web of life put every other strand in danger. Those young readers will be surprised to learn that this was not obvious to everybody until Carson wrote her book in the 1960s, but this is indeed the case.

"Preserving a Sense of Wonder" provides a basic introduction to the life and work of Rachel Carson, although certainly there is much more to learn about both her life and her beliefs. The last page of the volume has over a dozen quotes from the works of Rachel Carson (e.g., "Those who contemplate the beauty of the earth find reserves of strength that will endure as long as life lasts"), ideal for teachers or budding conservationists who are interested in having choice quotes for a bulletin board or bedroom wall. This is the third book in Locker's "Images of Conservationists" series, the others being "Walking with Henry: Based on the Life and Works of Henry David Thoreau" and "John Muir: America's Naturalist." Certainly any grade school unit on the environment and conservationism will have to introduce students to these three key figures and these books are a good way of accomplishing that task.

Wonder-ful
I looked for this last year and it seemed to be out of print. I use it with the John Muir book in a series of outings to our school prairie and garden for nature journaling with the children in my class. These are the sort of superheros I encourage my children to know.

A tribute which also covers Rachel Carson's basic concepts
Rachel Carson was best known for her book "Silent Spring": her ideas were adopted by environmentalists around the world and fostered many changes and improvements. Carson's life is profiled in Rachel Carson: Preserving A Sense Of Wonder, a picturebook biography offering color reproductions of painted landscapes by Thomas Locker to pair with a survey of her life. A lovely tribute which also covers Rachel Carson's basic concepts.