Force of Nature: A Novel of Rachel Carson

A beautiful and hopeful story of how a young impassioned naturalist grows up to change the world. For everyone who cares about our fragile planet.

＂An absolute joy to read.＂ --Book Riot

＂Gracefully written...pleasing to the eye and ear.＂ --Kirkus Reviews

Rachel was a girl who loved

science and the sea,

books and writing

and all the creatures of the world.

Rachel was quiet,

a listener by nature.

But when she saw problems,

she could not remain silent.

Some people thought girls

shouldn’t be scientists.

They thought girls

shouldn’t use their voices

to question or challenge,

even to protect

all the creatures of the world.

Luckily Rachel didn’t listen

to them.

SOPHIE BLACKALL (www.sophieblackall.com) is the illustrator of several award- winning picture books, including Meet Wild Boars by Meg Rosoff, Pecan Pie Baby by Jacqueline Woodson, Big Red Lollipop by Rukhsana Khan, and the Ivy and Bean books by Annie Barrows. Her many honours include a BCCB Blue Ribbon, Ezra Jack Keats New Illustrator Award, Society of Illustrators Founders Award, Publishers Weekly Best Children’s Book, Book Sense 76 Pick, and New York Times Top Ten Picture Book. Her artwork has also appeared in murals as part of the New York City MTA’s ＂Arts for Transit＂ program. She lives in Brooklyn, New York.

Ann Burg’s debut novel, All the Broken Pieces, was named an ALA Best Book for Young Adults, a Jefferson Cup award winner and an IRA Notable Book for a Global Society, among its many honors. All of her subsequent novels in verse have garnered multiple awards and starred reviews. Serafina’s Promise was named an ALA Notable, a Parents’ Choice Gold Award Winner, and an NAACP Image Award finalist. Unbound was the winner of the New-York Historical Society Children’s History Book Prize, the Christopher Award, and an Arnold Adoff Poetry Honor. Flooded was a Bank Street College Claudia Lewis Award winner, a Bank Street College Best Children’s Book (with outstanding merit), and a Junior Library Guild selection. Burg worked as an English teacher for ten years before becoming a full-time writer. She lives in Rhinebeck, New York, with her family. Visit her online at annburg.com.