Creekfinding: A True Story

Elaborate scratchboard etchings and a lyrical narrative tell of a creek's rebirth in northeastern Iowa. Filled with dirt to make way for farmland long ago, Brook Creek flows once again thanks to the efforts of scientist Michael Osterholm and his friends to restore a prairie ecosystem on his land. The story springs to life through Martin's (Alice Waters and the Trip to Delicious) buoyant, personified language: "The excavator had found the old stream./ Would water fill the path?/ Mike said the water remembered./ It seeped in from the sides... burbled into holes, filled the creek." McGehee's (North Woods Girl) vibrant, stylized illustrations show nearly smiling fish, birds, and insects populating their new habitat. From excavation to riparian planting to fish stocking, the reclamation steps appear as section headings ("Scraping and Digging," "Time for Trout") and additional facts swirl, ribbonlike, through scenes in a tiny typeface. This hopeful tale ends with author and illustrator notes, as well as encouraging words from Osterholm: "We can restore parts of our world that have been lost or degraded," he writes. "We can change the world by acting on our dreams." Ages 4-up. (Mar.)

Gr 1-3--Dedicated to "those who take care of our green places," this true account of how native Iowan Michael Osterholm "found" and restored a lost creek teaches children about ecosystems, problem-solving, and determination. When a neighbor told Osterholm that he once caught a brook trout in Osterholm's newly acquired cornfield, a dream was born. ("Mike knew there must have been a creek on that prairie. He wanted to find the creek, make a place for brook trout, birds, bugs, and frogs.... Others laughed, said Mike's plan was foolishness. Lost is lost.") With a little help from his friends and some heavy machines, he located the bottom of the creek and cleared its path. But Osterholm's dream required both hard work and patience--he planted grass and green shoots on the banks and waited three summers for them to grow. Gradually plants grew, and insects and small fish appeared. Finally, it was time to introduce the trout. McGehee traveled to the actual site to witness the water and wildlife firsthand before producing her stunning illustrations. ("I wanted to re-create the textures and colors I saw, so readers could 'walk' alongside Brook Creek as they learned about its restoration.") The text is broken up with chapter headings, such as "Trout in a Cornfield" and "Fish Squiggles," and small, italicized sidebars in blades of grass or streams of water provide additional information.