A Children’s Book Celebrates a School, a Legend, and a Way of Being in the World The story of Far Brooks One and Two BY TIA SWANSON
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here are two Far Brooks. One is the 75-year-old bastion of progressive education that occupies 9½ acres in Short Hills. It is a collection of red buildings, playground, ball field and half-swamp that is held dear by the thousands of children and their parents who have been part of its community. The other, the mythic Far Brook, was an actual stream. It was, legend has it, the small waterway a half mile from campus that gave the school its name. This stream was not big or important enough to have an actual name. Its moniker describes its distance from the school. It was not the small stream that still runs through campus, nor even the one a ways on from that. It was the third stream, the far brook, as it were. The stream was long ago paved over by development, all but lost
to history. It lives in the memory of Brad Wiley, who was a third grader at the school’s founding 75 years ago. He took walks and school trips across what were then empty fields to that stream of long ago. Now it also lives in a book dedicated to the school, to Wiley and to all that Far Brook is. Its title is The Far, Far, Far Brook. “Not far from the big city, just past the South Mountain, there’s a land with short hills and long valleys,” the book begins. “Along the side of one of those hills is a cluster of little red buildings – a magical place called Far Brook School.” The book was written by two men from Maplewood. Doak Sergent, who sent his son and daughter to Far Brook, is a trustee. His co-author, Roberto Olazagasti, who also illustrated the book, is not just a Far Brook parent. He is the school’s art teacher. In the small world that defines so much
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of Maplewood and Far Brook, the two men have been friends and neighbors for more than 20 years, starting in Manhattan and including moves to Brooklyn, to Maplewood and then within Maplewood. The book follows three boys, the leader named Brad, on an adventure to the far brook. Along the way they discover and identify several types of trees, skunk cabbage and tadpoles. They spy a chipmunk, a frog and water walkers. They find their way back by following the footprints they’ve left in the soggy wetland. When asked what he wanted the story to say about Far Brook, Sergent talks about the kids’ sense of adventure, their ability to solve problems to find their way home and their resilience, all skills the school emphasizes. One of the most important lessons, however, is the setting. “Part of Far Brook’s philosophy is that kids get outdoors,”