Creekfinding
A True Story
Jacqueline Briggs Martin
Illustrations by Claudia McGehee
New York Public LIbrary: A Top 100 Best Book for Kids 2017
John Burroughs Association - Riverby Award for excellent natural history books for young readers
Green Prize for Sustainable Literature Awards
Green Earth Book Award
An enchanting picture book about restoring a creek, with all the wildlife it once hosted, in a farm field in Iowa. Ages 4-9.
In the words of award-winning author Jacqueline Briggs Martin and the enchanting illustrations of Claudia McGehee, this is the heartwarming tale of an ecosystem restored in the Driftless Area of northeast Iowa. The story will charm and inform young readers who are drawn to a good mystery, the wonders of nature—and, of course, big earth-moving machines.
The main narrative reads smoothly aloud, and the pictures, though detailed, should show well to a small group. Author's and illustrator's notes and a comment from the actual creek rescuer complete the package. A heartening story of environmental restoration. —Kirkus Reviews
Once upon a time a creek burbled up and tumbled across a prairie valley. It was filled with insects and brook trout that ate them, frogs that chirruped and birds watching for bugs and fish. This is a true story about a man named Mike who went looking for that creek long after it was buried under fields of corn. It is the story of how a creek can be brought back to life, and with it a whole world of nature.
In the words of award-winning author Jacqueline Briggs Martin and the enchanting illustrations by Claudia McGehee, this heartening tale of an ecosystem restored in the Driftless Area of northeast Iowa unfolds in a way that will charm and inform young readers who are drawn to a good mystery, the wonders of nature—and, of course, big earth-moving machines.
Awards
New York Public LIbrary: A Top 100 Best Book for Kids 2017
John Burroughs Association - Riverby Award for excellent natural history books for young readers
Winner - Green Earth Book Award
$16.95 cloth/jacket ISBN 978-0-8166-9802-8
36 pages, 30 color plates, 10 x 9, 2017
Jacqueline Briggs Martin has written more than fifteen picture books including the Caldecott Award–winning Snowflake Bentley and, most recently, Chicken Joy on Redbean Road and Farmer Will Allen and the Growing Table.
Claudia McGehee is the illustrator and author of A Tallgrass Prairie Alphabet and A Woodland Counting Book. Most recently, she illustrated North Woods Girl.
The main narrative reads smoothly aloud, and the pictures, though detailed, should show well to a small group. Author's and illustrator's notes and a comment from the actual creek rescuer complete the package. A heartening story of environmental restoration.
Kirkus Reviews
A heartening picture book that celebrates the thoughtful restoration of a prairie.
Booklist
A delightful picture book.
Cabin Living Magazine
The story springs to life through Martin’s (Alice Waters and the Trip to Delicious) buoyant, personified language. McGehee’s (North Woods Girl) vibrant, stylized illustrations show nearly smiling fish, birds, and insects populating their new environment.
Publishers Weekly
Chronicling the true story of one man’s quest to revive a stream rumored to have run through the prairies of Iowa, Jacqueline Briggs Martin relates the trials and triumphs in Creekfinding, a return to nature that proves that ‘a creek isn’t just water.’
Foreword Reviews
Eloquent narrative nonfiction to inspire the future caretakers of our planet.
School Library Journal
Creekfinding is a beautiful rendering of this inspiring true story of environmentalism in action.
Little Village
Creekfinding will have young readers thinking how they can find and support their own wilderness in the places they live.
Children’s Compass Chronicle
A great book to share with curious children.
Kids and Eggs
A lovely and inspiring new children’s book.
The Gazette
Reading this story aloud to my three children has already inspired change in our local ecosystem.
Wellesley Magazine
We all need to hear stories like this one; true stories about people who have brought about change and made the world a better place through their actions. Hearing such stories lifts us up, and we are encouraged to do what we can to make our part of the world more beautiful.
Through The Looking Glass Children’s Book Reviews
With patience and passion, the process paid off, in this environmentally engaging story of hope and the tenacity of spirit displayed by those who care about the Earth – their commitment restores our planet to its natural beauty. How grateful we are for their contributions.
The Missourian
Readers of all ages will appreciate the sequence of events in restoring the creek and the anecdotal comments about frogs, and the life cycle of Brook Trout.
Oneora Reading Journal
About This Book
Related Publications
Related News & Events
Wellesley Magazine: Healing the planet, one creek at a time.
Many of us recall the allure of a rippling stream and the activities it spawned —from skipping rocks, to nabbing crawdads, and diverting the creek’s flow with a dam that would make a beaver envious.
When an Iowa City author and illustrator duo heard the story and visited the site of a reclaimed creek and prairie in NE Iowa, they knew it was the perfect story to teach children about the importance of environmental conservation.
Wellesley Magazine: Healing the planet, one creek at a time.
“How does a creek get lost?” So begins Creekfinding, the inspiring, true-life tale by Jacqueline Briggs Martin ’66 of a trout creek buried beneath the Iowa prairie and of Mike Osterholm, the man who brought it burbling back to life, thus reviving a whole ecosystem.
"A story of helping the earth to heal itself."
Iowa City author Jacqueline Briggs Martin and her friend Iowa City illustrator Claudia McGehee are both nature enthusiasts. It seems most fitting, then, that the creative duo teamed up to put together a lovely and inspiring new children’s picture book called “Creekfinding: A True Story.”
TTLG Editor's Choice: Creekfinding
Many years ago a spring “burbled out of the ground and tumbled itself across a prairie valley” and it became a creek. The water was home to fish, insects, frogs, birds, and many other creatures. Then the creek was lost because a farmer used a bulldozer to fill it in with earth so that he could plant big fields of corn. Instead of running through a creek bed, the water from the spring flowed through a ditch and it no longer offered animals and plants a habitat where they can thrive.
Mpls St Paul Magazine: Creekfinding
In Creekfinding, children's author Jacqueline Briggs Martin tells the true tale of an old creek discovered under Iowa farmland and restored to its blooming, gurgling, buzzing glory.
Iowa Public Radio: A True Story About a Creek that was Lost, Found, and Restored
After children's book author Jacqueline Briggs Martin read an article in the paper about a man who had restored a creek back into a thriving habitat, something about the story struck her.