William Accorsi

"Rachel Carson" is a short story about the life of writer Rachel Carson, who wrote the monumental book "Silent Spring". Carson lived on a farm in Pennsylvania, and cared very much for the animals that lived there. Her mother was a teacher, and read to her every evening, inspiring Carson to write her own stories. In college, she studied both literature and nature, and eventually earned a master's degree. After publishing "The Sea Around Us", Carson became a beloved author, which gave her some credibility in many people's eyes when she wrote "Silent Spring". Businessmen, farmers, and politicians did not like that Carson had revealed the dangers of the poisons used as pesticides at the time, but many trusted her work.
The structure of this book is very awkward; there are pages filled up with illustrations and text while others feel weirdly empty. The book is unnecessarily drawn out, with many pages dedicated to single sentences. What was stated in three pages could work well in just one, if crafted well. It also irks me that the book says, "The president... asked important people what they thought about Rachel's book." Accorsi could have used "scientists", "researchers", or "officials" instead of "important people" in this case. Overall, the story is enjoyable. If it had been crafted better, I think it could have been a very good book.… (más)

This book gives a brief account of the life of Rachel Carson. Rachel Carson was a writer who wrote about her favorite subject, nature. Her first book wasn't successful, her second book had much success, but it was her third book that got people to begin thinking about how they were affecting nature. Her book entitled "Silent Spring" came from researched information about poisons farmers used to kill weeds and insects. This one book got people to begin to question how their actions affect the health of the environment. Rachel Carson’s book is a great example of how books can bring attention to problems and have people to think about the solutions to the problem.… (más)

This book follows the life of Rachel Carson from the time that she was a child up until the publishing of her most famous work, Silent Spring. I found this book to be reasonably informative and appropriate for young readers; however, I felt that it was perhaps a bit too dull to peak the interest of most children. At the beginning, the book reads almost like a fairy tale, effectively drawing readers in, but as it goes on, the book seems to become less and less interesting, which leads me to believe that if a teacher were to read this book aloud to their class, the teacher would likely lose many students along the way. However, for a young reader interested in environmentalism or in Rachel Carson herself, I think that this book would be an excellent choice.… (más)