Review of Marjory's River of Grass

Marjory Stoneman Douglas,

Fierce Protector of the Everglades

A TRUE TALE WITH

A CHERRY ON TOP

Christy Ottaviano Books

(Little, Brown Books for Young Readers)

(pub. 4.15.2025

40 pages

Ages 4 - 8

Author and illustrator: Josie James

Character: Marjory Stoneman

Overview:

" As an environmental journalist and conservationist, Marjory Stoneman Douglas spent her life fighting to preserve the Florida Everglades. Now celebrated as a subtropical paradise with a diverse ecosystem, the Everglades was once considered a worthless swamp. Marjory recognized the wetlands as a treasured river, home to an array of species unlike anywhere else in the world—and she was determined to help protect it.

This is the story of how Marjory’s incredible vision and unwavering tenacity led to the preservation of one of the most unique regions on Earth."

Tantalizing taste:

"In January 1930, the members of the National Park Service arrived... Birds sang, woodpeckers tapped, frogs croaked, and insects buzzed as the observers slogged beneath the majesty of a cypress dome.

The Everglades put on a spectacular show for the delegation. Roseate spoonbills displayed their bright pink feathers. The sunset lit the sky on fire, and more stars than the visitors had ever seen scattered themselves across the darkening heavens.

The National Park Service told Congress that the Everglades was a subtropical paradise full of the most fascinating life on land, in air, and in water, worthy of becoming a national park.

Unfortunately, Congress was in no rush to make a final decision. This meant trouble ..."

And something more: Josie James explains in the Author's Note of Marjory's River of Grass: "In 1997, 1.3 million acres, 86 percent of Everglades National Park (which had been set aside as wilderness in 1978), were named the Marjory Stoneman Douglas Wilderness to recognize her contributions to the protection of the environment."

"Be depressed, discouraged, and disappointed at failure and the disheartening effects of ignorance, greed, corruption, and bad politics - but never give up."- Marjory Stoneman.

Book B'day: Remembering STARRED review of Maya Lin: Artist-Architect of Light and Lines from The Horn Book Magazine

Revisiting starred review (paraphrased) from The Horn Book Magazine for Maya Lin: Artist-Architect of Light and Lines  (published in July/August 2017 issue) and visiting the wonderful Library of Congress.

Written by Jeanne Walker Harvey, illustrated by Dow Phumiruk

In its early pages, this quiet and contemplative picture-book biography sets up artist-architect Maya Lin’s fascination with spaces, natural and human-made, and their dynamic relationship with phenomena such as light.

The daughter of two Chinese-immigrant artists, a potter and a poet who “never told Maya what to be or how to think,” Maya honed both her creativity and her intellect as a child. She went on to study architecture, a fusion of “art, science, and math,” in college.

During her senior year at Yale, Maya entered a national contest to design the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, inspired by its guideline that the design must blend with the park setting.

That a twenty-one-year-old novice beat out 1,420 other candidates, many of them famous architects, is intrinsically captivating fodder for a picture book, and Lin’s conviction about her own design in the face of public backlash is a built-in lesson in perseverance. Appropriately, the book’s muted art has the fine lines, precision, and spatial astuteness of architectural drawings, and Phumiruk’s use of perspective is often striking. A wide double-page spread of the finished memorial, for instance, impressively captures its length as the wall of fallen soldiers’ names stretches diagonally toward the horizon.

Harvey’s text makes thoughtful, relatable connections between Lin’s work and the themes of her life; an author’s note adds supplementary details on the memorial’s design and touches on Lin’s later work

Joan Mitchell Paints a Symphony

A TRUE TALE WITH

A CHERRY ON TOP

Calkins Creek

(Astra Books for Young Readers)

(pub. 2.25.2025)

40 pages

Ages 7 - 10

Author: Lisa Rogers

   Illustrator: Stacy Innerst

Character: Joan Mitchell

Overview:

" It’s 1983, and American artist Joan Mitchell is in her studio outside Paris, transforming her emotions and memories into a symphony of colors and shapes. Inspired by her friend’s description of an idyllic hidden valley in France, Mitchell creates 21 massive paintings—her Grande Vallée series —bursting with vibrant, energizing hues.

But she doesn’t paint the valley’s flowers and meadows. She paints a feeling about them—abundance, freedom, liveliness—creating a harmonious blend of drips, splashes, and brushstrokes in rainbow colors. When the paint dries, it's time to share her valley with the world."

Tantalizing taste:

"Joan envisions the valley as it springs to life

in its fresh greens, vibrant pinks, bright blues.

In its textures -

unfurling fern, rambling vines,

prickly leaves, soft grasses.

In its slow decay

as radiant summer

turns to muted fall.

She senses it, smells it, hears, feels it...

In Joan's La Grande Vallée

you cannot glimpse butterflies,

hear frog's splish and squeak,

or sense warm sunbeams on your skin.

But as you explore

her great, grand valley,

you might imagine you can."

And something more: Lisa Rogers, shared in the Author's Note in Joan Mitchell Paints a Symphony: "I was drawn to Joan's Grande Vallée paintings by their vivid colors and limitless energy, and when I learned of her inspiration, I wanted to know more. These massive abstract paintings somehow feel personal. Each stroke was created with intent, yet the paintings allow space for viewers to imagine and explore on their own."