Traces the life of the woman who became known as the "Grandmother of the Glades" for her fight to preserve the Florida Everglades against misuse and development.
Profiles the suffragist, feminist, and environmentalist who fought for the preservation and protection of the Everglades and won the battle that turned it into a national wilderness area.
Biography of Marjory Stoneman Douglas, dubbed "the grandmother of the Everglades," a woman who devoted her life to teaching the importance of preserving the unique habitat of southern Florida.
Florida is lucky to have had three women — three Marjories — speaking out about saving Florida's natural environment. Marjory Stoneman Douglas is known as the “Mother of the Everglades.” She wrote The Everglades: River of Grass, the seminal and now classic book on this unique region of south Florida. She was a tireless campaigner for the environment and helped make the Everglades a national park. Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings is best known for her books set in Florida: The Yearling, Cross Creek, and South Moon Under, all set in the then-remote wilderness of central Florida. Her very popular books brought the world's attention to the importance of the culture and natural environment of this region. Marjorie Harris Carr fought to save the Oklawaha River by challenging the building of the Cross Florida Barge Canal. She argued that this would cut the ecology of the state in two, particularly ruinous for the wildlife. Now there is the Marjorie Harris Carr Cross Florida Greenway, which serves as a bridge for wildlife through developed areas and over I-75.
Set in the early 1900s, Among the Beautiful Beasts is the untold story of the early life of Marjory Stoneman Douglas, known in her later years as a tireless activist for the Florida Everglades. After a childhood spent in New England estranged from her father and bewildered by her mother, who fades into madness, Marjory marries a swindler thirty years her senior. The marriage nearly destroys her, but Marjory finds the courage to move to Miami, where she is reunited with her father and begins a new life as a journalist in that bustling, booming frontier town. Buoyed by a growing sense of independence and an affair with a rival journalist, Marjory embraces a life lived at the intersection of the untamed Everglades and the rapacious urban development that threatens it. When the demands of a man once again begin to swallow Marjory’s own desires and dreams, she sees herself in the vulnerable, inimitable Everglades and is forced to decide whether to commit to a life of subjugation or leap into the wild unknown. Told in chapters that alternate between an urgent midnight chase through the wetlands and extensive narrative flashbacks, Among the Beautiful Beasts is at once suspenseful and deeply reflective.
Former ESPN sportscaster Sandra Neil Wallace makes her young adult debut with a historical fiction novel that School Library Journal recommends to fans of Friday Night Lights in a starred review. Felix “Red” O’Sullivan’s world is crumbling around him: the mine that employs most of town is on the brink of closing, threatening to shutter the entire town and his high school with it. But Red’s got his own burdens to bear: his older brother, Bobby, died in the war, and he’s been struggling to follow in his footsteps ever since. That means assuming Bobby’s old position as quarterback and leading the last-ever Muckers team to the championship. But the only way for the hardscrabble Muckers to win State is to go undefeated and tackle their biggest rival, Phoenix United, which would be something of a miracle. Luckily, miracles can happen all the time on the field.
Duane the polar bear and the other animals of the very, very far north find their friendships deepening as they are challenged by the arrival of a contentious weasel and an unexpected departure.
“Vibrant…an ideal starting point for further learning.” —School Library Journal “A lively portrayal of Douglas as a remarkable individual and a significant environmental activist.” —Booklist From acclaimed children’s book biographer Sandra Neil Wallace comes the inspiring and little-known story of Marjory Stoneman Douglas, the remarkable journalist who saved the Florida Everglades from development and ruin. Marjory Stoneman Douglas didn’t intend to write about the Everglades but when she returned to Florida from World War I, she hardly recognized the place that was her home. The Florida that Marjory knew was rapidly disappearing—the rare orchids, magnificent birds, and massive trees disappearing with it. Marjory couldn’t sit back and watch her home be destroyed—she had to do something. Thanks to Marjory, a part of the Everglades became a national park and the first park not created for sightseeing, but for the benefit of animals and plants. Without Marjory, the part of her home that she loved so much would have been destroyed instead of the protected wildlife reserve it has become today.