Eileen Cameron - G Is for Garden State: A New Jersey Alphabet

A New Jersey Alphabet

G is for Garden State is an alphabet book that reveals New Jerseys history, culture, and landscape to young readers in a unique two-tiered approach. A quick rhyme offers children a unique fact about New Jersey from A to Z. Alongside each rhyme, older elementary students gain a rich understanding of the topic by reading the longer expository information.

Charming illustrations from artist Doris Ettlinger highlight the fascinating information provided by author Eileen Cameron. Both live in New Jersey and relished their time together exploring the flora, fauna, geography, and historical figures of the Garden State of New Jersey.

A New Jersey Alphabet

Written by Eileen Cameron and Illustrated by Doris Ettlinger

To my parents, and to all the Kirwins, Knowleses, and OLoughlins,
for love of history and literature, and to my family advisors,
Rosie, Jean, Tom, Peter, Michael, and Mary.

EILEEN

To my neighbors on Imlaydale Road..

DORIS

The Lenape, who were Native Americans and known as Woodland Indians, lived in New Jersey for thousands of years before the Europeans settled here.

Green forests and fertile fields provided shelter and game for the hunter with bow and arrow as well as nuts and berries for the gatherer with baskets. New Jersey is a peninsula and the Lenape had access to fresh and salt waters where they fished with nets and dug for clams.

Wonderful sounds inherited from the Native Americans sing in the names of our lakes, towns, and riversAbsecon, Hackensack, Musconetcong, Hopatcong, Raritan, Navesink, Nantuxent, Piscataway, Tuckahoe, and Passaic.

A is for Arrowhead carved by the Lenape, who used arrowheads to hunt for meat and nets for fishing in the sea.

Boardwalks are built along the beach in many New Jersey shore towns. Visitors watch the sea, stroll, jog, and bike. Amusement piers feature rides on roller coasters and merry-go-rounds. Cotton candy and saltwater taffy are traditions.

The first boardwalk was built in Atlantic City in 1870 so people would not track sand into the hotels. The board game, Monopoly, is based on Atlantic City. The most expensive property in Monopoly is Boardwalk.

B is for Boardwalk down at the shore, where children bike and play, and mewing seagulls soar.

Cranberries have grown in the Pinelands for centuries. They are a New World plant and Native Americans used the wildberries for food. Early English settlers enjoyed tart cranberry sauce with venison and turkey.

Cranberries grow in low-lying areas called bogs. Blueberries, grown on low shrubs, are also cultivated in the Pinelands. Elizabeth White of Whitesbog developed and marketed the first cultivated blueberries in 1916.

New Jersey ranks third in the production of cranberries in the United States and second in blueberries. The blueberry is the state fruit of New Jersey.

C is for Cranberries, bright, red berries for Thanksgiving dinner, served in a sauce for a holiday winner.

The Seeing Eye was founded in 1929 and moved to Morristown in 1931. It was the first guide dog training center in the country.

Seeing Eye dogs are trained to be the eyes for the blind people they guide. Trainers work with their dogs in the stores and on the sidewalks of Morristown, teaching them to guide their new masters safely through the aisles and across the streets. They teach the dogs skills to help their owners travel independently and with dignity.

The Seeing Eye breeds German shepherds, and Labrador and golden retrievers to be companion guide dogs.

D is for Dogs.

Trainers teach them to go and to stay.

Smart dogs guide sight-impaired people.

Seeing Eye Dogs show them the way.

Thomas Edison, who lived and worked in New Jersey, was one of the greatest inventors of the nineteenth century. He transformed how people lived by perfecting the incandescent light bulb in 1879 in Menlo Park. He also devised a system to deliver electricity to homes and businesses by building the first electric power plant so people could have lights and machines powered by electricity. Roselle, New Jersey, was the first town to be lighted by electricity.

Edison often worked 20 hours a day developing inventions to make life easier and more enjoyable. At his labs in Menlo Park and West Orange he invented many firsts including the phonograph and the movie projector. He held over one thousand patents.

E is for Thomas Edison, for until he turned on the lights, the world lived in long, dark nights.

Thriving iron mines functioned in colonial New Jersey. In the 1800s glassworks hummed in the Pinelands. Water powered factories in Paterson, one of the first planned industrial cities, is where the mills made textiles. The twentieth century saw the production of ships, motors, and electrical equipment.

Currently New Jersey leads the United States in manufacturing petrochemicals, plastics, medicines and pharmaceuticals, and electrical goods and machines. The Mars Company in Hackettstown makes the colorful chocolate M & M candies.

In early days sailing ships transported goods. Later trains carried the products. Today container ships, airplanes, and trucks that use a modern highway system take the goods to market.

F is for Factories, where people work as teams, making useful things for us with busy, whirring machines.

New Jersey is called the Garden State because of the many gardens here. Fertile land and abundant water make farming flourish. Even though New Jersey is the most densely populated state, having the most people per square mile, it is a leading producer of agricultural products.

Greenhouses and nurseries, dairy and vegetable farms are important. Major crops include tomatoes, corn, asparagus, eggplant, peaches, and berries. New Jersey produce is shipped widely throughout the United States and Canada. Many homes have vegetable gardens and flower gardens, some of which are like bowers, shaded by trees or arbors.

The honeybee, New Jerseys state insect, helps fruits and vegetables to grow by pollinating the plants. Formal flower gardens beautify the state. In spring, cherry blossoms glow in Branch Brook Park in Newark, tulips at Skylands, and two thousand varieties of irises in the Presby Garden in Montclair.