Marjory's River of Grass
Marjory Stoneman Douglas, Fierce Protector of the Everglades
Pre-release: Expected April 15, 2025
0 of 1 copy available
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.
Bonus content includes an author's note, inspiring quotes by Douglas, and information about water: where it comes from, and what we can do to help preserve this precious resource.
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Creators
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Publisher
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Release date
April 15, 2025 -
Formats
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OverDrive Listen audiobook
- ISBN: 9781668647387
- File size: 11790 KB
- Duration: 00:24:33
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Languages
- English
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Reviews
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January 1, 2025
Gr 1-4-In 1915, when Marjory Stoneman Douglas stepped off of the train in Miami, she had to ask her father what the Everglades were. By the late 1940s, she would be one of the people responsible for saving them. Douglas quickly fell in love with the region's beauty and unique ecosystem, only to confront the looming threats to its survival. Through adept biographical storytelling, Douglas's life's work of fighting for the Everglades is brought to the center. Her passion and perseverance helped bring about the recognition of the Everglades as a designated treasure by the National Park Service in the 1930s, and eventually, its establishment as a national park in 1947. But the work of protecting and preserving this land was far from over. The narrative, while concise and clear, is marked by poetic flourishes that engage young readers while maintaining focus on Douglas's legacy. The inclusion of primary source quotes from Douglas's seminal work, River of Grass, along with presidential declarations, enriches the narrative and provides authentic voices to the historical context. The back matter includes valuable source materials and additional information. VERDICT An excellent starting place for educators and young environmentalists alike, this is highly recommended for classrooms and libraries.-Louie Lauer
Copyright 2025 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.
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Elizabeth Wiley narrates this short biography of Marjory Stoneman Douglas, an early champion of the Florida Everglades ecosystem and author of the groundbreaking book RIVER OF GRASS. Douglas was born in 1890 and lived for 108 years, working as a journalist, writer, and conservationist. Wiley's narration of her story, which includes numerous quotations, evokes a sense of the time in which Marjory lived and the gravitas of her work. Wiley's mature timbre, slow pacing, and ability to deliver prose in a poetic style afford the listener a view of an amazing woman who helped save the Florida Everglades from development. L.T. © AudioFile 2024, Portland, Maine -
Starred review from January 1, 2025
Preschool-Grade 3 *Starred Review* When environmental activist/journalist/author Marjory Stoneman Douglas first visited the Florida Everglades as a young woman, profiteers were hunting alligators to make shoes, wallets, and handbags out of their skins, killing herons and egrets to use their plumes to decorate women's hats, and draining water that supported plants and animals away to towns and cities. This picture-book biography skillfully traces Douglas' decades-long fight to save the Everglades, emphasizing how she saw beauty and inestimable value in an area that many dismissed as a swamp. It starts with young Douglas, just out of college in 1915, being completely bowled over when she first saw the colors and creatures of the Everglades, then outraged that developers planned to "reclaim" the largest subtropical wilderness in the U.S. The illustrations wonderfully contrast the beauty of the Everglades and the peril they faced by using blue, green, and pink pastels for the landscape and sky, set against drizzly grays for construction scenes. The story is suspenseful, with the fate of the Everglades constantly in doubt, and the pivotal point comes with the publication of Douglas' book, The Everglades: River of Grass, in 1947, which resulted in Congress designating the Everglades a national park. An invigorating story that should inspire young readers to enlist in environmental efforts.COPYRIGHT(2025) Booklist, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
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February 15, 2025
This picture-book biography of Marjory Stoneman Douglas leans into her passion for Florida's Everglades. A Minnesotan by birth, Douglas arrived in Florida in 1915 as a college graduate, joining her estranged journalist father at theMiami Herald. There, she fell in love with the Everglades and used her writing skills to draw attention to their importance and to advocate for their preservation. Seeing this ambition become reality took decades of persistence and incremental success. James' text, set in small, businesslike type on her backgrounds, leads readers on a jerky path through Douglas' long life (she died at 108). They meet many of the influential men in her life--her editor, her fellow activists--but not the husband whose surname she adopted. That is but one omission that readers may note in this elliptical text. Most notable is the stark absence of the Miccosukee and the Seminole; while the text waxes lyrical about the flora and fauna, it is silent about the human residents of the Everglades. Information is too frequently conveyed in awkward, expository, and unsourced dialogue; James' digital artwork often has a distinctly uncanny-valley effect. She places her white subject, usually clad in hat and pearls, amid a variety of swampy settings. Backmatter offers an author's note, information on water resources, a bibliography, and source notes. Douglas' life and work were important; this attempt to celebrate them falls short. (list of relevant organizations)(Picture-book biography. 7-9)COPYRIGHT(2025) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
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