Meadowlands: A Wetlands Survival Story

Author: Thomas F. Yezerski

Illustrator: Thomas F. Yezerski

Peach’s Picks Rating:

 

Year of publication: 2011

City of publication: New York

Publisher: Farrar Straus Giroux

ISBN: 978-0-374-34913-4

Author website: http://www.thomasfyezerski.com/

Illustrator website: See “Author website” entry

Media used for illustrations: Ink and watercolors

Annotation: Chronicles the history of the New Jersey Meadowlands from the time Native Americans inhabited the area to recent times when industrial pollution nearly destroyed it. Environmental organizations work to restore and protect it.

Personal reaction to the book: This history of the Meadowlands begins with a view from the Empire State Building in New York City looking across to New Jersey at the Meadowlands, a wetlands area. Next, the reader is taken back in time to a village inhabited by the Lenni Lenape, a Native American tribe. Here the reader sees the Meadowlands in pristine condition. As European settlers arrive, the environment is modified and nearly destroyed by dikes, dams, transportation routes, and garbage dumps. In 1969 the government took steps to recover the area from decades of industrialization and pollution. The Meadowlands restoration has been accomplished through government agencies, environmental activists, businesses, and volunteers working together. Thanks to actions taken by these groups, there is a successful combination of urban growth and ecological restoration.  Areas of the Meadowlands are set aside for business, transportation, and housing. While other areas remain as marshland and waterways used for recreation and environmental education. Now, animal and plant life successfully live side-by-side with humans and industrial growth. Throughout the book the author makes a poignant statement showing development and the natural world struggling to find a balance. The author/illustrator achieves this well through illustrations that provide a timeline-like trip through the Meadowlands, always including the natural habitat in contrast with urban development. The text is offered in a simple straightforward manner that may be easily understood by younger readers while remaining interesting to older readers. The book has a very appealing design with a wrap around cover showing a panoramic view of the Meadowlands that contrasts industry, railroads, and highways situated in the Meadowlands. All illustrations are attractive, realistic water color drawings designed as double-page spreads surrounded by white borders.  Detailed images that relate to the main illustrations are found in the borders; for example, page 20-21: the text discusses yellow sandpipers and the borders contain small illustrations of other birds native to the area. The border illustrations are labeled to increase the reader’s understanding. No images are lost in the gutters of the double-page spreads. The text runs under the main illustration, never longer than five lines and does not extend into the borders. The illustrations offer much detail and are pleasing to view. They are better seen by a small group or individually than shared with a large group. An especially interesting perspective is found on pages 14-15. A picture of an insect seems to be flying in front of your nose. This is juxtaposed against a waterway and a bridge. The reader feels as though they are low in the marsh grass looking up into the horizon and on to the sky. The title page is a map of the Meadowlands and surrounding area. An author’s note offers more detail about the Meadowlands’ history. A bibliography and selected websites are included. This is an excellent book to use when studying ecology and human’s affect on nature.

General curricular connections:

• Ecology
• Wetlands
• Habitats
• New Jersey
• Use with A River Ran Wild by Lynne Cherry, And Still the Turtle Watched by Sheila MacGill-Callahan, Everglades by Jean Craighead George, and The Buffalo Are Back by Jean Craighead George

Specific example of curricular connection matched to State Standards:
Subject: Science / Ecology

Grade level: 9-12

Standards:

California State Standards

Biology/Life Sciences

Grades Nine - Twelve

Ecology

6. Stability in an ecosystem is a balance between competing effects. As a basis for understanding this concept: a. Students know biodiversity is the sum total of different kinds of organisms and is affected by alterations of habitats.

b. Students know how to analyze changes in an ecosystem resulting from changes in climate, human activity, introduction of nonnative species, or changes in population size.

Recommended grade levels:

School Library Journal recommends this book for use with grades 2-5

Booklist recommends this book for use with grades 1-3

Peach’s Picks recommends this book for use with grades 2 and up

Awards/Recognitions:

Horn Book starred review

Publishers Weekly starred review

School Library Journal starred review

Junior Library Guild selection

Note: This book applies to the assignment criteria - books published in 2010-2011

Simile: Page 18; “The falling tide is also like a rising curtain, exposing the muddy banks of the river…”

Metaphor: Page 18; This is the chance for the fiddler crab to dance.” Followed by Personification “He [male fiddler crab] taps his pointy feet…” (page 19).

Repetition: Transportation routes passing through the Meadowlands: pages 1-2, 3-4, 5-6, 9-10, 11-12, 13-14, 15-16, 19-20, 21-22, 23-24, 27-28

Book cover picture retrieved from http://www.thomasfyezerski.com/pages/books.html