It was going to be like the best camping trip ever!  When Nina’s parents announced the purchase of 80 acres of abandoned farmland along the Wisconsin River, she was very excited.  The property even had a small shack to serve as headquarters for their adventures.  The fact that Nina’s dad was Aldo Leopold maybe didn’t seem to be that important.

In Aldo Leopold’s Shack: Nina’s Story, Nancy Nye Hunt tells of Nina’s adventures as Nina – the middle of five children – and her family work to restore a depleted and worn piece of central Wisconsin.  Much to their surprise, the first step was to clean up all the chicken manure inside the dilapidated structure.  Fortunately, their subsequent tasks were considerably less repulsive.  Presenting the story in a children’s picture book format, Hunt has created an attractive chronicle. 

While Aldo Leopold may not be a household name everywhere, in Wisconsin he’s a state hero.  The observations he gathered over the 13 years (1935-48) that he spent at the shack were the raw materials for A Sand County Almanac, one of the founding documents of modern ecology.  The shack still stands today and is on the US Register of Historic Places.

Hunt’s goal is clearly to motivate children to take an interest in the Leopold family and the ecological philosophy they espoused.   She describes numerous escapades – swimming in the river, skiing over the prairies, befriending a wild squirrel or owl – in ways that are sure to appeal to any school aged kid interested in nature.  Each page contains a small amount of text and features numerous photographs – some taken at the time, others in the present day – nicely emphasizing how the land has changed since the family started rejuvenating it.

The book works both as a children’s story and an inspired tribute to the eminent naturalist for adults.  The pictures are well done and fully capture the spirit of the adventure.  Hunt also includes family recipes, songs and glimpses at some of the pages from the Leopold Shack Journals.  I found some of the supplemental materials – maps, family trees, time lines and other resources – useful as well and suspect they could prove helpful for any student who wants to explore these topics more.

While Nina’s story is quite interesting and I learned a lot that I didn’t know about Aldo Leopold and his family, I was left a bit confused.  Based on the information included at the end of the book, Nina was about 18 years old at the start of the story.  However, Hunt has written the book as if she was closer in age to her younger sister, Estella, who was about eight at the time.   When I first read the book, I assumed that the pictures of a small girl, including the cover photo, were of Nina.  It wasn’t until I perused the picture index at the end of the book that I realized that they were actually of Estella.  Not that it really changes the significance of the story, but I assume that the book’s younger readers will share my confusion and resentment at being misled.

Despite this one criticism, Aldo Leopold’s Shack is an interesting read for both children and adults.  It captures the spirit of a formative moment in the history of humanity’s changing view of the natural world and does so in a way that is accessible to even small children.  A touching story presented in a lovingly crafted book. 



This review is an entry in jenniferkateab's Geography Write-Off.

Recommended: Yes