Spring After Spring: How Rachel Carson Inspired the Environmental Movement

by Stephanie Roth Sisson, Stephanie Roth Sisson (Illustrator)

Overview

From Stephanie Roth Sisson, the creator of Star Stuff, comes a picture book biography of Rachel Carson, the iconic environmentalist who fought to keep the sounds of nature from going silent.

As a child, Rachel Carson lived by the rhythms of the natural world. Spring after spring, year after year, she observed how all living things are connected. And as an adult, Rachel watched and listened as the natural world she loved so much began to fall silent. Spring After Spring traces Rachel’s journey as scientist and writer, courageously speaking truth to an often hostile world through her book, and ultimately paving the way for the modern environmental movement.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781626728196
Publisher:	Roaring Brook Press
Publication date:	08/14/2018
Pages:	40
Sales rank:	211,138
Product dimensions:	8.70(w) x 11.20(h) x 0.50(d)
Lexile:	AD790L (what's this?)
Age Range:	4 - 8 Years

About the Author

Stephanie Roth Sisson is an artist who has illustrated many books for children, including Star Stuff, a picture book biography of Carl Sagan. She divides her time between Mauritius, Africa, and Sarasota, Florida.

Editorial Reviews

An NSTA 2019 Outstanding Science Trade Books selection
An NSTA 2019 Best STEM Books selection
An NCSS and CBC 2019 Notable Social Studies Trade Books for Young People selection for Kindergarten to Second Grade readers

"The perfect choice to inspire young readers and listeners, with just the right amount of detail to inspire, entrance, and encourage further investigation." - Kirkus, Starred Review

"Sisson fashions a picture book that is laudably thorough and informative, and it’s a visual treat as well." - Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books

A "brief, upbeat biography that introduces an important scientist and her work." - School Library Journal

From the Publisher

07/01/2018
K-Gr 3—Sisson's paneled illustrations place Rachel Carson in the natural world that fascinated her from childhood and inspired her groundbreaking books. Sisson stresses Carson's curiosity about and careful observations of birds, insects, and other animals as she grew up in Pennsylvania. Those same qualities served her well as a scientist and writer who introduced readers to the lives of sea creatures in best-selling books. Sisson's diagrams help explain the harmful effects of DDT that Carson articulated in her most influential work, Silent Spring. Sisson leaves out many personal and professional challenges Carson faced, which Laurie Lawlor includes in her picture book biography for slightly older readers, Rachel Carson and Her Book That Changed the World. Although Sisson does mention some of the controversy the Silent Spring generated in the main text, she provides additional information in an author's note that emphasizes the book's influence on the environmental movement. Her meticulous notes reveal Sisson's own extensive research. The variety of page layouts add visual interest. VERDICT This brief, upbeat biography that introduces an important scientist and her work would be a good addition to most public and school library collections.—Kathy Piehl, Minnesota State University Library, Mankato

School Library Journal

★ 2018-05-28
"It was dawn when the chorus began."As a child, Rachel Carson awoke to a symphony of birds, and she listened, watched, and wrote as other animals joined in. Innovative, appealing illustrations show Rachel in comic-book panels, vignettes, and full- and double-page spreads as she explores, observes, and deeply appreciates nature. A profusion of dialogue balloons reproduces the vocalizations of the animals around her. As a student, Rachel intends to write but instead focuses on the microscopic world in a drop of water, which in turn leads to underwater scientific study and, later, well-received books about the sea. However, it's when she realizes that the symphony she loves has grown quiet—effectively represented by both the absence of sound bubbles and negative-space outlines of creatures now disappeared—that she makes her greatest contribution by revealing the destruction caused by pesticides in her book Silent Spring, which contributed to the formation of the EPA and the environmental movement. Resilience and dedication are strong underlying themes here; relevant details, such as her mother's background in music, are seamlessly incorporated; and while the focus understandably stays on her work—her overwhelming success as an activist and scientist in a field dominated by men goes unmentioned—there is certainly room for outside discussion. Carson and her family are white; people of color appear in scenes depicting her impact.The perfect choice to inspire young readers and listeners, with just the right amount of detail to inspire, entrance, and encourage further investigation. (notes, bibliography) (Picture book/biography. 5-8)

Kirkus Reviews