Thanks to NetGalley for an eARC of this book.

I was very excited to read this middle-grade nonfiction book. A community coming together to restore a prairie/woodland and create a path between the school and library? Sounds great. However, although the project was awesome, the book telling us about it feels a little all over the place. I was expecting a more detailed discussion of how the community actually restored the trail, so that kids could learn more about the process and get ideas for how to replicate it in their own yards/communities/etc. While there was some discussion of this, as well as how the school children used the trail throughout the year, there were other parts that were a slog. The history section felt dragged out and whitewashed the history of the indigenous peoples living in the area a bit too much for me (I also doubt that those chapters would keep the interest of a kid reading this book). Overall, the story of the community coming together to restore this land was really cool and inspiring, but I wish the book was a better reflection of that.

This is a really lovely little book about a community to that came together and created an accessible nature trail in an area that had essentially been a wasteland. At first the goal was just to make the space between a school and library safer for children but as community members got involved, excitement built and as the possibilities came clear. This book describes how people came together to restore the ecosystem and create a trail, the history of the area, and of the course of the seasons how the elementary students experience the nature trail. Restoring Prairie, Woods, and Pond is inspirational, the information is accessible to children, but interesting to anyone. Thank you to NetGalley for an advanced copy in return for my honest opinion.

I highly enjoyed this non-fiction narrative about how a community transformed a path into a nature preserve, and the history of the Wisconsin prairie that the author researched as well. It was fascinating to hear how people throughout history have interacted with the prairie land in the midwest, and that there were nature preservationists even in the 1800s. So often, I read about famous nature preserves that are national landmarks. It gave me, a midwesterner, a sense of pride to see that we can care for the land and restore our forests to be as beautiful as some of the more famous destinations.

I recommend this book for all ages, and for schools and libraries everywhere.