Customer Reviews

Restoration In The Barrens

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In my class we read the book Restoration of the Barrens, though the teacher seemed to like it the whole class agreed that they were disappointed. It simply wasn't very believable, although a degree of sympathy was felt during the beginning the main character Corey didn't have a backbone or sense of humor, I found it strange that Don continued to stay friends with him. And also that all the adults (with one exception of his 'so-called' evil science teacher) seemed to fall in love with him imediately. Another unbelievable factor of this book was the teasing in the fact that it wasn't very realistic either, the nickname that his peers gave to him in the book was "Professer Crane". Really? Seriously? No, you have to be kidding me. If it was real the other teenagers could have found a much more creative name to call him. That book is a insult to teenage intelligence. It mentions more than once how Corey finds his peers idiotic and then mentions the reasons. That is the only fact that the author got right about a teenagers life and, let me just say, maybe calling all the people who you want to read your book stupid in the book itself is NOT a smart idea. But hey, it's not my job to scorn the author's hard work so I'll tell you about the upside. Oops, forgot, there is none.

I loved this book. The writer knows what happens to young adolescents when they don't "fit in" to their high school society. They get harrassed, rejected, taunted and humiliated, and some teachers look on and fail to protect, even seem to sanction. But the grieving young man in this fast moving story takes to the near by woods and prairie, studies the plants and animals, hangs out with the natural world. And is richly rewarded by being needed in a restoration project. The story could not be more timely, when we are all talking about teenage anger and its sometimes tragic expression. Edith Nash

This book is a great way to teach ecology concepts to adolescents, but it's also a quick read. Corey quickly becomes a friend of the reader, although most readers would agree at the beginning that Corey is somewhat a geek. Through his trials, he shares with the reader his love of nature, especially the praries of Wisconsin. All the places mentioned in the book really do exist, as well as all the ecological concepts. This was an awesome story and my students couldn't wait to read his next book; Trouble in the Barrens.