[ʹmedō͵lændz]
Entertainment and sports complex in NE New Jersey, in the meadows of the Hackensack River, NW of New York City.
Children’s Books
The Other Jersey Shore
By PAMELA PAUL
Published: March 30, 2011
Just as some books that children find appealing make librarians want to yank their hair out, so other books guaranteed to please school librarians turn children’s gazes toward the recess yard. Then there are the books that satisfy both, like “Meadowlands,” by Hoboken’s Thomas F. Yezerski. Parents in Summit and Montclair will probably like it too.
MEADOWLANDS
A Wetlands Survival Story
Written and illustrated by Thomas F. Yezerski
40 pp. Farrar, Straus & Giroux. $17.99. (Picture book; ages 5 to 8)
Related
Times Topic: Children's Books Reviews
Tracing the history of northern New Jersey’s beleaguered ecosystem step by step from its Lenni Lenape days to its industrial nadir, through shopping mall construction and suburban development and, finally, to the stubborn re-emergence of its indigenous wildlife, “Meadowlands” depicts the human potential for both destruction and renewal. Yezerski not only can write a book on how to teach children about their environmental impact — he has. “Meadowlands” is tremendously (but not intimidatingly) informative, fun to read and gorgeous to look at.
“Meadowlands” is probably best for first and second graders, but 5-year-olds too will follow the story line, even if they don’t understand every concept, and all readers, young and old, will appreciate the detailed drawings that decorate the border of each spread. The introductory page, alerting New Yorkers to the existence of wetlands in what many assume to be the exclusive province of airports and strip malls, shows football fans, mobsters, mosquitoes and rest stops. (The only thing missing, to this New Yorker’s mind, is a Madonna concert at the Izod Center, often known as the Meadowlands arena, circa 1989.)
But while the book allows for humor, its message is serious. Impassioned without being preachy, “Meadowlands” ends on a high note for “this flat, wet, beautiful place”: “In July 2007, for the first time in 50 years, a young osprey — a bird of prey — leaped out and took flight from a nest its parents had built in the Meadowlands.” Pale Male, you’ve got competition to the south.
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