Lynne Cherry wants to save the environment one school at a time.
By: Jeff Milgram
Children’s book author and illustrator Lynne Cherry wants to save the environment one school at a time.
Ms. Cherry, an artist-in-residence at Princeton University’s Princeton Environmental Institute, started with the Dutch Neck Elementary School in West Windsor and the Riverside School in Princeton, where she’s helped Principal William Cirullo and teachers integrate the outdoors into the curriculum.
"I’ve been calling what I do greening the schools," she said.
She’ll discuss her work 11 a.m. Saturday at the Princeton University Store during a talk and book signing for her new book, "How Groundhog’s Garden Grew" (Blue Sky Press, 2003).
"My personal goal is to have our schools be a microcosm of what we want our world to be," Ms. Cherry said. "What a school can do is terrific."
Her new book takes a "reformed" groundhog through the cycle of the gardening year gathering seeds in the fall, storing them in the winter, planting in the spring, weeding and watering in the summer and harvesting at Thanksgiving.
Ms. Cherry uses the plants and animals from her own garden for her illustrations.
"This is the official new book signing," Ms. Cherry said.
Her books all on environmental themes are scientifically accurate and written in language understandable to children.
In "A River Ran Wild," Ms. Cherry recounted the true story of how one woman, Marion Stoddart, organized her community to clean up the once highly polluted Nashua River in Massachusetts.
Her work with schools is a two-way street. "I get inspired by them," she said. "They’ve integrated their schoolyard into the curriculum."
At Riverside, the students planted an organic vegetable garden and started a compost heap. This brings together science and history in an easy and fun way, she said.
"Kids learn more and retain it longer," Ms. Cherry said. "It’s win-win."
All of the teachers at Riverside have brought the outdoors indoors and the indoors outdoors. "It’s a school culture that values the outdoor learning experience," she said.
One day, she’d like to help design an environmentally friendly school.
Until then, there are some things teachers and students can do:
Turn some lawn or playground space into a nature habitat with native plants.
Plant berry-bearing plants for birds to feed.
Plant an organic vegetable garden and tie it into lessons on nutrition.
Use recycled paper.
Write letters to the editor on environmental issues.
"There are so many more things they can do," she said. "Most people feel they want to do something. They just don’t know where to start."
Her latest book was 18 months in the making. "The book started out as a biology book, but it was so, so dry," she said. To give it some life, she started to bring in characters.
"Groundhogs are the bane of gardens," Ms. Cherry said.

