Flower Hunter: William Bartram, America’s First Naturalist
Of John Bartram’s nine children, it is William who best loves nature and wants to follow in his father’s footsteps. William dreams of accompanying his father as he explores the wilderness of colonial America as botanist to the King of England in search of plant specimens. Using journals, maps, and her own vibrant paintings, Deborah Kogan Ray tells the captivating story of Billy’s first trip to the Catskill Mountains and his further adventures as an adult, including a long, perilous journey into the remote wilderness.
A bibliography, biographical notes, and list of plant discoveries complete this remarkable book about America’s first naturalist.
A Junior Library Guild Selection
Sea Cows, Shamans, and Scurvy: Alaska’s First Naturalist: Georg Wilhelm Steller
Making judicious use of Steller’s richly detailed journals and liberal use of illustrations and maps, Ann Arnold allows the reader to join Steller on this fascinating voyage and its final dangerous mission, which left half the crew dead and the rest suffering from scurvy.
Far Frontier
The wilderness and its natural wonders, as well as the settlers and the warring Indians, come vividly alive for readers today in a book that will quickly take its place with Mr. Steele’s outstanding earlier successes, such as Winter Danger, The Lone Hun, and The Perilous Road, which was a runner-up for the Newbery Medal.
If only his father had bound him out to learn blacksmithing or some other useful trade, young Tobias wouldn’t have minded. But to traipse through the Tennessee wilderness with a naturalist from Philadelphia, whose concern with insects and plants and birds seemed childish and often somewhat “touched” to the frontier folk, was almost more than he could bear. Then when Mr. Twistletree insisted on going deep into hostile Chickamauga Indian territory, Tobe’s reluctance turned info fear of capture and death by slow torture—for which the Chickamaugas were famous.
How Tobe slowly learns to respect and admire Mr. Twistletree, how his own curiosity about books and learning grows, and how, in the end, he comes to understand the importance of study and knowledge, are the heart of this exceptionally fine piece of Americana.
True Adventures of Charley Darwin
Young Charley Darwin hated school—he much preferred to be outside studying birds’ eggs, feathers, and insects. And so, at the age of twenty-one, he boarded a ship called HMS Beagle and spent five thrilling but dangerous years sailing around the world, studying plant and animal life that was beyond anything he could have imagined.
Here, just in time for Darwin’s 200th birthday and the 150th anniversary of the publication of his groundbreaking On the Origin of Species, historical novelist Carolyn Meyer tells the story of his unconventional adventures. It’s the story of a restless childhood, unrequited teenage love, and a passion for studying nature that was so great, Darwin would sacrifice everything to pursue it.
Journey Inward
JOURNEY INWARD is the 1982 autobiography of Jean Craighead George, author of around 100 books (almost all for children and young adults, and almost all related to science and nature), including the Newbery Medal winner, JULIE OF THE WOLVES, and the Newbery Honor winner, MY SIDE OF THE MOUNTAIN. This book basically covers from the period of newly wed Jean writing her first book (published in 1948) until the time JOURNEY INWARD was published, with a few flashbacks to her childhood and earlier adulthood.
The book chronicles Jean’s struggle to make a living, stay true to her artistic integrity in her writing, and raise three children in the turbulent era of the 1960’s (none of these an easy feat for a single woman, especially in that time period).
Runner of the Mountain Tops: The Life of Louis Agassiz
