Once there was a coco bird, chattering in the woods. A whistling bob white gathering sticks

for its nest. A lilac bush bursting with sweet smelling purple blooms. And a girl named

Rachel Carson, bounding through the forest with a wild sense of wonder.

Rachel was born in 1907 in Springdale, Pennsylvania. A rural town by the Allegheny River. She was

the youngest of three children, and grew up in a four-room, clapped-board house with no running

water, and only fireplaces and coal stoves for heat.

Rachel loved it there, especially when she and her mum went out on wilderness adventures

together, which they did a lot. Rachel's mum taught her all about

flora and fauna, bird songs and trees. One warm spring afternoon, Rachel and her

mum went out exploring. Past pink-biting apple trees and their orchard, up hilly fields

speckled with wild flowers and into the surrounding forest.

The soft scent of honeysuckle filled the air as Rachel leapt over twigs and sang along

with the local birds, like the timber doodles and warblers.

Oh, mum, look! A smooth sparkly rock caught Rachel's eye. Next to it was an elegant pine

cone, an brilliant striped blue-j-feather. Rachel and her mum examined the beautiful

artefacts, marvelling how they each had their own reasons for being there.

Then, after a little while, her mum told Rachel to put each piece back where she'd found

them. She wanted Rachel to always respect the wilderness, and to remember that humans

were just a tiny part of a vast, magnificent world. When Rachel was eight years old, she

started writing stories about all the plants and animals around her. She loved the idea

of sharing her connection to nature with other people, and tried to describe all the spectacular

sights, sounds and smells of the world by the river. When she was ten, she got her story,

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