Written By: Sandra Neil Wallace

Illustrated by: Rebecca Gibbon

For Ages: 4-8 years

Language: English

Topics Covered: Activism, Feminism, Science, Pint-Sized Professor, Environmental Activism, Sustainability, Nature, Historical Figure.

Summary: Happy Saturday! For #sweetsandsocialjustice this week I might have gone a little overboard, but I was inspired by the most recent episode of GBBO and made a Battenberg! I wanted to create the Everglades with cake, and hopefully I’ve accomplished that (and if not, at least it was still very tasty). I modeled the cake after a scene in the book where Marjory sees the Everglades from above, and is mesmerized by it.

Marjory was a young girl who lived with her mother, aunt, and grandparents in Taunton, Massachusetts. When she was young she had the opportunity to go with her father on a visit to Florida, where she fell in love with everything about it. After a failed marriage and a college degree, Marjory left Massachusetts and moved to Florida, where her father had started a newspaper. Marjory became a journalist and wrote news stories until enlisting in the Navy during WWI. Upon returning to Florida, Marjory noticed that the Everglades had changed, and not for the better.

This became the catalyst for Marjory’s lifelong goal of saving the Everglades. She knew in her heart that the Everglades were a unique ecosystem and even discovered that it’s not a swamp, it’s actually a river! Marjory began environmental groups, community organizer, and general nuisance to would-be developers of the Everglades. She not only got it declared a national park, but also the biggest natural regeneration project in American history, getting developers to reverse the detrimental engineering they had done over the last few decades. This book is fantastic, and goes in-depth about a badass environmental activist that had monumental impacts on policy and created lasting change for this unique and mosquito-filled habitat in Florida.

This book was published by Simon & Schuster and sent to us by Blue Slip Media. All opinions are my own!

Recipe: Super Sweet White Birthday Cake

Ingredients:

1c sugar (for a less sweet cake, you can use 3/4c if you want)

1 stick butter

2 eggs

2t vanilla extract

1.5c all-purpose flour

1.5t baking powder

.5c milk

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 and prepare a 9×9 cake pan. Cream together butter and sugar, and then add eggs one by one followed by vanilla. Whisk together flour and baking powder, and add. Slowly stream in milk and beat until smooth. Bake for 35-40 minutes, or until cake tester/toothpick comes out clean.