It's
Marvelous Middle Grade Monday
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and #IMWAYR day
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March 17, 2026 by Little, Brown Books for Young Readers
ARC provided by Books Forward
Julianne Koepcke's survival in the Amazon after a plane crash in 1971 is a riveting story that has been covered before in Olson's 2018 Lost in the Amazon: A Battle for Survival in the Heart of the Rainforest as well as her own 2012 memoir When I Fell from the Sky: The True Story of One Woman's Miraculous Survival. Follow the Water frames this true story in a way that will appeal to middle grade readers, with details about Koepcke's life before and after this tragic event and a lot of additional information about a variety of topics, such as wildlife in the Amazon, rainforest leaves, and bacteria and viruses.
Raised by biologist parents in Peru, in a remote research facility dubbed "Panguana", Juliane learned a lot about her environment and how to survive in it. When she reached high school age, she was required to attend a school in Lima. Right before Christmas in 1971, her mother visited her, and the two got on a small plane to return home.
When the plane went down, Juliana fell two miles to Earth, but sustained relatively few injuries. This was because her airplane seat was attached to another, so fell in a manner similar to a maple tree seed, which slowed her down, and she then fell through densely packed liana vines. She had a spinal cord injury and a broken collar bone, and ended up with just her dress, one shoe, and a handful of food she was able to find in the wreckage. Heeding her father's advice that she "follow the water", she traveled down the river despite her injuries. She was fairly fortunate that she was not attacked by any animals, although she did have maggots in her wounds and ended up with an infection from drinking the water. After eleven days, she came across a boat that she thought about taking, but also found a cabin and some woodcutters, who were very surprised to see her but took good care of her and helped her get to safety.
After this experience, Koepcke continued her studies. She worked as a librarian in Munich and eventually followed in her parents' footsteps to protect the Peruvian wilderness, often facing political difficulties. She specializes in bats, and continues to advocate for the rainforest.
I loved the factual details sprinkled throughout the book, but my favorite concerned the filmmaker Werner Herzog, who adapted her story into the 1998 film Wings of Hope. He had a personal connection to her story because he and his crew were waiting in line at the same airport as Koepcke but were unable to get on the flight, saving their lives!
The research that Cochrane did is extensive, and there is a great list of sources that includes books as well as multiple web sites. The story moves quickly, and has just enough detail about the events before and after the crash to add an extra level of interest. Hand this to readers who like true survival tales like Sole Survivor by Norman Ollestad or fictional ones like Into the Rapids by Anne Braden.
October 14, 2025 by Astra/ Calkins Creek
Copy provided by the Publisher
Born in Cleveland in 1935, Mary Oliver loved being outside, and enjoyed how natural elements made her feel happy. How could see capture that feeling? She loved reading poetry, and even wrote to the sister of recently deceased poet Edna St. Vincent Millay to ask if she could visit her home. She graduated from high school, and after several visits to Millay's home, accepted a job helping to organize her papers. She started publishing her peomes, and lived in Cape Cod with photographer Molly Malone Cook. Despite growing fame, Oliver remained devoted to capturing the joy in quiet, beautiful moments in her poetry, and taught at many places until her death from lung caner in 2019.
Oliver's work seems to be very popular, and is much quoted. This picture book biography captures the same dreamy feel of her nature poems in both the lyrical text and misty, ethereal illustrations. There is an author's note, timeline, and list of resources, making this well suited for research.
Have this book on rotation for April, National Poetry Month, along with Fountain and Turnham's The Poem Forest: Poet W. S. Merwin and the Palm Tree Forest He Grew from Scratch, Bober and Gibbon's Papa is a Poet: A Story About Robert Frost, Clinton and Qualls' Phyllis' Big Test, and Rogers and Groenick's Sixteen Words: William Carlos Williams and the Red Wheelbarrow, and especially Starflower: The Making of a Poet, Edna St. Vincent Millay by Farkas, Vizzo, and Dwyer.
Full confession: I am not a fan of Oliver's poetry. Millay, yes. Timothy Steel, absolutely. Oliver's work reminds me of poems that were printed on greeting cards in the 1970s. I'd love to see a picture book biography of Edna St. Vincent Millay, however.
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