A River Ran Wild: An Environmental History

I once taught a multicultural course to high school students. After we had studied Native American culture for awhile, one girl asked, "Can you tell me one progressive thing the Indians did for this country?" I didn't have to answer--the class answered her question. "They taught us respect for Mother Earth." Lynne Cherry does that in "A River Ran Wild: An Environmental History." This is the true story of a natural people who lived along the banks of the Nashua River in Massachusetts in the 1400s. They called it the Nash-a-way, or River with the Pebbled Bottom. They hunted only what they could eat and asked forgiveness of the animals they killed; they took only what they needed, living in the rhythm of forest and river life. Lynne Cherry added a wonderful artistic design to every other page by squaring the text and placing in the loop items relevant to the story. For example, the page about Native Americans building a village and hunting what they needed, she draws utensils, arrowheads, baskets, vegetables--infusing the story with rich detail. On the opposite page is a full-color depiction, in this case, of village life. When the trader comes, he brings knives, pots, kettles, cups, beads, and finally a trading post. The text about farms is surrounded by farm implements, livestock, inventions of the time--just like a flat-surfaced diorama. There is so much to look at, to study. The Nashua was still healthy, but in the 1800s millers started damming it. The Industrial Revolution finally began spilling its sputum into the pure waters. By the 1960s the river was dead. It took the instigation of Marion Stoddart, who started the Nashua River Cleanup Committee in 1962, to begin a grass-roots campaign to clean up the river. Congress passed the Clean Water Act in 1965. Close to 500 youths worked five months to clear debris from the river and banks. By 1979 the river was clear again and wild animals had returned. This was not a dream. Sometimes it takes only one person to set change into motion and an artist to visually record it.

This book is wonderfully illustrated. Lynne Cherry's style is to put a large picture on each page surrounded by smaller pictures all relating to the subject. In this book the subject is the course of a river over time and the effects of humanity on its health. The side pictures relate to the people and their lifestyle at the time. The text gives relatively simple explanations of what is occurring on the page.

I used this book with my third grade class when they were studying the effects of water pollution on a large body of water. They had already studied Native Americans in second grade and this book just blended the two subjects together. The step by step portrayal of man's harm to the Nashua River helped my children learn about how they were harming the Chesapeake Bay in Maryland. Lynne Cherry is a fantastic author and presents two great subjects that are highly interesting to children. Any teacher that teaches either Native Americans or water pollution should include this book in their lessons!

This book was given to me at age 12. I am now 17 and it is still my favorite. I will never outgrow the beautiful pictures, or the very important lesson it teaches. Every page is expertly laid out, with exquisite paintings depicting the river and the era being discussed. The message of environmental conservation and protection is inspiring. Lynne Cherry makes this vital part of our existence understandable to young children, and even adults, often the harder group to reach. I highly reccommend this book for anyone who wants their children to appreciate the world around them and learn that they can, and should, do their best to save it.

This is a beautiful book! The illustrations are breathtaking and it follows an almost "illuminated" type of text structure, similar to that found in "The Mitten" by Jan Brett. Each page is bordered by illustrations of items pertaining to the period in history that the page is depicting - the implements used by Native peoples, animals that live by the river, inventions of the Industrial Revolution, etc. There is much more to talk about on each page than just the environmental theme of the book. This book would fit well in units about Native people, progress/inventions, ecology, water habitats, etc. A must-have for classrooms, homes, and teachers