University of Minnesota Press, $16.95
“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.”
In the words of award-winning author Jacqueline Briggs Martin, this heartening tale of an ecosystem restored in northeast Iowa unfolds in a way that will charm and inform young readers; filled with mystery, nature and big earth-moving machines.—Breana Roy