Fighting for the Forest by P.O'Connell Pearson - ADVISABLE

Fighting for the Forest by P. O’Connell Pearson, 197 pages.  NON-FICTION Simon and Schuster, 2019.  $18.  

Content: Language: G; Mature Content: G; Violence: PG.  

BUYING ADVISORY: MS, HS – ADVISABLE 

AUDIENCE APPEAL: AVERAGE  

During the Great Depression, Franklin D. Roosevelt promised the American people that he would help the country economically and environmentally.  One of his best-known programs was the Civilian Conservation Corps which provided jobs for young men and helped improve National Parks and taught classes for farmers so they would know how to rotate their crops.  Starting with an explanation of the country’s fall into the depression and the idea to start the CCC, this book builds up to the CCC’s work mostly in Shenandoah National Park.  

My grandparents were cooks for the CCC in Yellowstone National Park during the Great Depression, so I was highly interested in this book.  I was disappointed that more National Parks weren’t discussed, but by concentrating on the Shenandoah Park I feel like the author paints a detailed enough picture that I could imagine what was going on in other places.  There are a lot of cool pictures included and side stories discuss minorities and the challenges that these CCC projects caused down the road.  This would be a great read for U.S. history teachers.  

Reviewer, C. Peterson