Stein, Sara Bonnett 1935–2005

views updated

Stein, Sara Bonnett 1935–2005

PERSONAL: Born October 7, 1935; died of lung cancer, February 25, 2005, in Vinalhaven, ME; daughter of Earl Clough (an insurance medical examiner) and Sara (a psychoanalyst) Bonnett; married Martin Stein (an architect), 1959; children: Aram, Joshua, Rafael, Lincoln. Education: Attended Cornell College; New School for Social Research (now New School University), B.A. Hobbies and other interests: Gardening.

CAREER: Writer and illustrator. During early career, worked as a toy designer.

AWARDS, HONORS: Noah's Garden: Restoring the Ecology of Our Own Back Yards named among 75 Great American Garden Books, American Horticultural Society.

WRITINGS:

(Editor) New Parents' Guide to Early Learning, introduction by Ira J. Gordon, New American Library (New York, NY), 1976.

Learn at Home the Sesame Street Way, Simon & Schuster (New York, NY), 1979.

(And illustrator) A Family Dollhouse, photographs by Jon Naso, Viking (New York, NY), 1979.

(Editor) Soviet Almanac, Harcourt (New York, NY), 1981.

Girls & Boys: The Limits of Nonsexist Childrearing, Scribner (New York, NY), 1983.

My Weeds: A Gardener's Botany, illustrated by Ippy Patterson, Harper (New York, NY), 1988.

(With Carol Greenberg) Pretend Your Nose Is a Crayon, and Other Strategies for Staying Younger Longer, Houghton (Boston, MA), 1991.

(And illustrator) Noah's Garden: Restoring the Ecology of Our Own Back Yards, Houghton (Boston, MA), 1993.

Planting Noah's Garden: Further Adventures in Backyard Ecology, Houghton (Boston, MA), 1997.

Noah's Children: Restoring the Ecology of Childhood, North Point Press (New York, NY), 2001.

(Author of foreword) Zeva Oelbaum, Flowers in Shadow: A Photographer Rediscovers a Victorian Botanical Journal, Rizzoli (New York, NY), 2002.

FOR CHILDREN

A Piece of Red Paper, illustrated by Otto David Sherman, Small World Press (Princeton, NJ), 1973.

About Dying: An Open Family Book for Parents and Children Together, photographs by Dick Frank, Walker (New York, NY), 1974.

A Hospital Story: An Open Family Book for Parents and Children Together, photographs by Gilbert W. Kliman, Walker (New York, NY), 1974.

The New Baby: An Open Family Book for Parents and Children Together, photographs by Dick Frank, Walker (New York, NY), 1974.

About Handicaps: An Open Family Book for Parents and Children Together, photographs by Dick Frank, Walker (New York, NY), 1974.

Making Babies: An Open Family Book for Parents and Children Together, photographs by Doris Pinney, Walker (New York, NY), 1974.

The Kids' Kitchen Take-over, Workman Publishing (New York, NY), 1975.

How to Raise a Puppy, photographs by Robert Weinreb, Random House (New York, NY), 1976.

How to Raise Mice, Rats, Hamsters, and Gerbils, photographs by Robert Weinreb, Random House (New York, NY), 1976.

Great Pets!: An Extraordinary Guide to Usual and Unusual Family Pets, Workman Publishing (New York, NY), 1976.

How to Raise Goldfish and Guppies, photographs by Robert Weinreb, Random House (New York, NY), 1976.

A Child Goes to School, photographs by Don Connors, Dolphin Books (Garden City, NY), 1978.

The Adopted One: An Open Family Book for Parents and Children Together, Walker (New York, NY), 1979.

About Phobias: An Open Family Book for Parents and Children Together, photographs by Erika Stone, Walker (New York, NY), 1979.

On Divorce: An Open Family Book for Parents and Children Together, Walker (New York, NY), 1979.

The Science Book, Workman Publishing (New York, NY), 1979.

Cat, illustrated by Manuel Garcia, Harcourt (San Diego, CA), 1985.

Mouse, illustrated by Manuel Garcia, Harcourt (San Diego, CA), 1985.

(And illustrator) The Evolution Book, photographs by Rona Beame, Workman Publishing (New York, NY), 1986.

(And illustrator) The Body Book, Workman Publishing (New York, NY), 1992.

Oh, Baby!, illustrated by Holly Ann Shelowitz, Walker (New York, NY), 1993.

SIDELIGHTS: Sara Bonnett Stein was best known as a writer of nonfiction books for children, as well as three books for adults about ecologically minded gardening. Stein initially earned a degree in Russian studies from the New School for Social Research, but after she married and began a family, her mind turned to other subjects. First, she found work as a toy designer and even constructed a doll house that was exhibited at the Museum of the City of New York, and became the subject of her 1979 book A Family Dollhouse. Then her interest turned to writing nonfiction for children. Notable among these titles is her series that addresses serious issues, such as death, adoption, hospitalization, phobias, and divorce, in a way that young readers can understand. Books such as Making Babies: An Open Family Book for Parents and Children Together and On Divorce: An Open Family Book for Parents and Children Together are written specifically so that parents can sit down with their children and discuss these issues with the assistance of Stein's text. Stein also wrote juvenile nonfiction on such subjects as taking care of one's pets and scientific subjects such as evolution and human anatomy.

Some of Stein's books about children are intended for adults. Her Girls & Boys: The Limits of Nonsexist Childrearing, for example, tries to dispel some misconceptions parents may have about gender identity. Although some psychologists have held that gender roles in children are largely learned through their environment, Stein pointed out that there is also a strong biological basis for how a boy or girl behaves. In fact, the author goes so far as to assert that parents are misguided if they try to avoid gender stereotyping in their child-rearing practices. "Girls & Boys is a triumph of femininity over fanaticism," Joseph Sobran concluded in the National Review praising the book as a "seamless blend of experience and scholarship." Noting that the author's position will invite some criticism from those who do not share her views, the reviewer attested that there is much "wisdom" in the work and that Stein "has done a lovely thing" in writing it.

An amateur gardener, Stein had long worked in her backyard to produce a beautiful vista incorporating flowers and ornamental plants. However, as she cleared away native species of flora, she noticed that her home was visited less and less frequently by birds, butterflies, and other endemic animals. Eventually, she realized that her "gardening" was destroying the native environment. This led her to study ecology and write a series of books about how gardening can affect the environment, beginning with Noah's Garden: Restoring the Ecology of Our Own Back Yards. This book urges people to become better stewards of the land, and to plant flowers, shrubs, herbs, and grasses that will attract wildlife by providing them with food and shelter. "The book is an account of her reeducation," according to Horticulture contributor Christopher Reed. "It is filled with personality, and among its other virtues it is entertaining reading." Countryside & Small Stock Journal reviewer Robert Di Falco praised how the "author explains land and vegetation and habitat in a way that is easily understood."

In her follow-up book, Planting Noah's Garden: Further Adventures in Backyard Ecology, Stein talks about her experiences on the lecture circuit after she published Noah's Garden, and she further develops her explanations on how to create natural backyard habitats. Camille LeFevre, writing in a Horticulture review, observed some flaws in Stein's ideas about conservation, noting that advocating collecting certain plant species from the wild and replanting them in one's own garden is sure to "infuriate conservationists." LeFevre also did not agree with Stein's suggestions that mixing native and non-native species is fine, yet at the same time strongly indicting the "public nonchalance about invasive exotic species." On the other hand, a Library Journal contributor felt that Planting Noah's Garden "will surely become a bible for anyone interested in a rehabilitation project."

With Noah's Children: Restoring the Ecology of Childhood Stein combined her interest in gardening with her concern for children in a book about the necessity of exposing children to nature in order for them to better develop healthy bodies and minds. Stein maintains that city children who spend most of their time indoors, and children who live in the suburbs but are surrounded by an unnaturally manicured landscape that is largely bereft of wildlife, are denied sensory experiences that can enhance creativity and problem-solving skills. While critic Laura Sessions Stepp commented in a Washington Post Book World review that Stein's arguments can be flawed by their sense of nostalgia for the old, pre-suburbia days, she added that "Stein does a great service by reminding us how the pieces of a child's environment should fit together." A Publishers Weekly contributor concluded that "Stein's rambling style, her observations and philosophy are consistently engrossing."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Booklist, March 1, 1994, Stephanie Zvirin, review of Oh, Baby!, p. 1261.

Chicago Tribune, August 5, 2001, Joanne Trestrail, interview with Sara Bonnett Stein, p. 5.

Countryside & Small Stock Journal, May-June, 1994, Robert Di Falco, review of Noah's Children: Restoring the Ecology of Childhood, p. 72.

EPA Journal, winter, 1995, review of Noah's Children, p. 27.

Horticulture, October, 1993, Christopher Reed, review of Noah's Garden: Restoring the Ecology of Our Own Back Yards, p. 70; February, 1998, Camille LeFevre, review of Planting Noah's Garden: Further Adventures in Backyard Ecology, p. 60.

Library Journal, April 15, 1997, Beth Clewis Crim, review of Planting Noah's Garden, p. 106; June 1, 2001, review of Noah's Children, p. 198.

National Review, March 23, 1984, Joseph Sobran, review of Girls & Boys: The Limits of Nonsexist Childrearing, p. 46.

Publishers Weekly, March 8, 1993, review of Noah's Garden, p. 58; September 20, 1993, review of Oh, Baby!, p. 70; May 28, 2001, review of Noah's Children, p. 70; June 23, 2003, review of Great Pets!: An Extraordinary Guide to Usual and Unusual Family Pets, p. 70.

School Library Journal, December, 1993, Jacqueline Elsner, review of Oh, Baby!, p. 109.

Washington Post Book World, July 11, 2001, Laura Sessions Stepp, review of Noah's Children, p. 9.