Rachel Carson's Wonder-Filled World

How the Scientist, Writer, and Nature Lover

Changed the Environmental Movement

A TRUE TALE WITH

A CHERRY ON TOP

Calkins Creek

(Astra Books for Young Readers)

pub. 3.11.2025

40 pages

Ages 7 - 10

Author: Kate Hannigan

   Illustrator: Katie Hickey

Character: Rachel Carson

Overview:

"Rachel Carson wasn’t always the Rachel Carson, renowned environmental activist. From her earliest years, Rachel had a passion for nature—to her, it was a fairyland, and she loved to write about her adventures and the creatures she saw. Encouraged by teachers, Rachel wanted nothing more than to study the ocean and its inhabitants. Though unable to finish her PhD due to financial constraints, Rachel found work in science and success as a nature writer.

In the course of her work, Rachel learned about the harm caused by recently developed pesticides and chemicals that made their way into the environment. Desperate to protect nature for future generations even as her health declined, she penned the famous book Silent Spring—a call to action against the threat of the deadly chemicals. The book is anything but quiet, selling more than 2 million copies and leading directly to changes like the Clean Air Act of 1963 and the Clean Water Act of 1972."

Tantalizing taste:

"But walking with Roger amid tiny seedlings

and tall spruce, Rachelle knows nature is as

fragile as a robin's egg. All around her, she…

sees trees cut down and buildings going up,

hears the honking of more drivers on the road,

smells the spray of weed killers and pesticides,

feels the sun's heat where shade used to be,

tastes the worry over what is to come."

And something more: Kate Hannigan in the Author's Note explains: "Carson died just eighteen months after Silent Spring was published. She didn't live to see the impact of her work, which still resonates today, or to hear the good names people called her – like 'mother of the environmental movement.' Her book laid the groundwork for many efforts to protect the earth..."