GREEN PROMISES: GIRLS WHO LOVED THE EARTH

JEANNINE ATKINS
Atheneum Books For Young Readers
2025
ISBN 978-1-6659-50572

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I can’t think of a better way to welcome Spring and celebrate Earth Day than with a new book, especially one about nature and the earth, and following after Women’s History Month.

In Green Promises: Girls Who Loved the Earth, Jeannine Atkins delves into the lives and achievements of two extraordinary women who made significant discoveries and important contributions to our knowledge of nature and the Earth.

Like many young people of her time, (Mary) Agnes Chase, (1869-1963), left school in eighth grade to help support her family. But it was her skill at drawing plants that distinguished her and earned her a position at the Smithsonian Institution. Agnes published more than seventy scientific works, and went on to become the first woman president of the Botanical Society Of America.

Marguerite Thomas Williams (1895-1991), focused on the way rivers shape the land and the ways that people shape the rivers. She discovered that floods happen when rivers try to be where they belong but their space has been taken. Yet we can change the course of a river by planting more trees and grasses with roots that hold the earth. Those same tree roots serve to filter the water and hold the riverbanks in place. “Like memory, the river moves forward while trying to hold where it came from.” Marguerite became the first African-American to earn a PhD in geology.

The book, written in verse, with informative and lyrical language invites us to take a closer look at the natural world around us.

Pick up a rock and examine it. Rocks hold clues to changes in climate and have stories to tell.

Take a walk and feel the earth beneath your feet, accepting that “land matters because everyone needs a place to stand.”

“History is like a river. No one can see it all at once.” Though you might not feel it, the Earth is turning while no one is watching. So, every day, every moment, keep looking. You don’t want to miss the wonder!

While you may not like math or science, this book may persuade you to interact with them and give them a chance to tell their stories. Let math show you the beauty of building connections that take you beyond numbers. And science, as Marguerite says, “is a quiet way to love the world.”

Jeannine Atkins is the author of numerous critically acclaimed books for young readers, though adults will enjoy them as well. Some of her other titles include: Girls Who Looked Under Rocks: The Lives of Six Pioneering Naturalists; Finding Wonders: Three Girls Who Changed Science; Grasping Mysteries: Girls Who Loved Math; Stone Mirrors: The Sculpture and Silence of Edmonia Lewis.

Inspiring books to read and to give as gifts, I hope you will pick a few. You won’t be disappointed.

See you next time on May 22^nd!

Veronica Jorge