How a new children’s book honors Rachel Carson’s life and mission.
“Now open your eyes,” said Rachel. “Look!”
Roger blinked. “What is it?” he whispered.
The sea was alive with moving light.
Blue and green and
sparkling like diamonds,
glittering like emeralds,
alive and alive and alive.
Everywhere, as far as Roger and Rachel could see,
the sea was filled with luminous life.
In her new book, Night Walk to the Sea: A Story about Rachel Carson, Earth's Protector, award-winning author Deborah Wiles has captured both the emotional intimacy of strolling along a darkened seashore with a child and the enchanting mysteriousness of such an adventure.
Inspired by a letter from the late Carson to dear friend Dorothy Freeman, and by Carson’s own experiences with her grandnephew, Roger — as chronicled in the posthumously published The Sense of Wonder — Wiles’ story celebrates the magic of the natural world and the power of realizing your place in it. Throughout, Daniel Miyares’ happy, boisterous illustrations bring the tale vividly to life.
Carson, best known for her seminal Silent Spring, believed deeply that adults must share their love of — and responsibility to care for — the environment with young people. The Sense of Wonder reads like an inspired call for grownups to do just that.
With Night Walk to the Sea, Wiles has honored Carson’s mission and introduced the much-missed environmental crusader to a new generation of readers. This beautiful edition deserves special notice from educators and parents. It’s a Carson-related classic that you’ll want for your family.
Linda Lear is the author of Rachel Carson: Witness for Nature. She has written introductions to all of Carson’s works re-issued in the United States, as well as to the Penguin Classics U.K. edition of Carson’s The Sea Around Us.
