Force of Nature: A Novel of Rachel Carson by Ann E. Burg (review)

Reviewed by: Force of Nature: A Novel of Rachel Carson by Ann E. Burg Kate Quealy-Gainer, Editor Burg, Ann E. Force of Nature: A Novel of Rachel Carson; illus. by Sophie Blackall. Scholastic, 2024 304p Trade ed. ISBN 9781338883381 19. 99 Reviewed from digital galleys Ad Gr. 4-7 When noted conservationist Rachel Carson was in fifth grade in the late 1910s, she wanted to be a writer. She was good at it, too, encouraged by her mother and even published at a young age. Her home life was more challenging, but she made the best of it, taking solace in the fields and forests near her Pennsylvania home and finding success at school. Eventually, her grades took her to the Pennsylvania College for Women, where she discovered a passion for biology that matched her love of writing. Carson persevered through her teachers' doubts and systemic sexism, but a series of financial and family woes left her floundering. That is until a role at the U. S. Bureau of Fisheries led to her writing an article in The Atlantic End Page 244 and subsequent research, which she eventually drew on in her most famous work, "Silent Spring" in 1962. This biography-in-verse focuses on a founding figure in the environmental movement, but the verse format unfortunately underserves its subject, giving Carson little dimensionality or ability to hold complicated emotions. The first-person voice lacks character and continuity, hampering any development of readerly investment or emotional stakes. Still, the topics are timely on multiple levels, in her interpersonal relationships, her professional path, and the political movement that took cues from her work. As a woman in STEM (before it was called STEM), Carson had to fight to be taken seriously, especially when her writing earned the wrath of the USDA as she campaigned against synthetic pesticides. Her struggle to balance caring for her family while pursuing her own dreams is a familiar theme, even in middle grade and YA books, but it is likely her determination to save what can be saved in a polluted, scarred world that readers might find most relatable. An author's note with further details on the role of Carson's work in the environmental movement is included. Copyright © 2024 The Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois