Ms. Stein was born Sara Bonnett in Manhattan on Oct. 7, 1935, the second of three daughters of Earl Clough Bonnett, an insurance medical examiner, and Sara Bonnett, a psychoanalyst. She attended Cornell College for a year and earned her bachelor's degree in Russian studies at the New School for Social Research. In 1959, she married Mr. Stein, an architect. Sara Stein, an influential advocate for gardening with native plants, died Feb. 25 at her home in Vinalhaven, Me. She was 69. Ms. Stein began her career as a toy designer, which led to her writing children's books. She started off in 1974 with a series on sensitive subjects like hospitals, dying and handicaps. The books were subtitled "An Open Family Book for Parents and Children Together" (Walker & Company). In 1979 she added "On Divorce" and "The Adopted One" to the series, and in 1983 "About Phobias" and "Making Babies." The same year she published "Girls and Boys: The Limits of Nonsexist Childrearing" (Scribner's). Stein’s “The Science Book” (1980), filled with games, projects and experiments, was a particularly popular example of what Richey referred to as “fun science.” In addition to her husband, Ms. Stein is survived by four sons, Lincoln, of Glen Cove, N.Y.; Rafael, of Ramsey, N.J.; Joshua, of Acton, Mass.; and Aram, of Richmond, Calif.; two sisters, Suzanne Caffuzzi, of Manhattan, and Diantha Guessous, of Rabat, Morocco; and six grandchildren.

She entertains with tales of famous—and notorious—weeds of the world, compares weeding tools and methods, and discusses the uses of weeds. Along the way, Stein also explains the intricate workings of photosynthesis, plant anatomy and reproduction, evolution, and the laws of succession by which nature tries to reclaim the land a gardener has disturbed. To explain how humans digest food, Stein suggested that readers first listen to a growling stomach. To illustrate the mystery of sound waves, she advised setting up dominoes and watching them fall.Stein was in the forefront of children’s nonfiction books at a time when parents were being encouraged to discuss babies and hospitals, adoption and other sensitive issues with their children,” said Cynthia Richey, a past president of the Assn. for Library Service to Children. “Stein’s books were stalwarts.”

Stein first became interested in natural habitats when she attended a lecture on the subject in 1991 at the New York Botanical Garden. She went home and began restoring a pond she had recently drained, hoping to encourage wildlife to return. She also planted more of the native blue stem grass that had been growing wild in her yard. By asking of the common weed, "What kind of plant is this? How does it behave? What is it up to in my garden? Can I thwart its plans?" Stein shows how a thorough understanding of the enemy is the gardener’s best defense. Incredibly adaptive, weeds are also good teachers, and Stein shows us what they tell us about our gardens and the lives of all plants. This style of gardening isn’t for people who need to be in control,” said Neil Diboll, president of Prairie Nursery in Westfield, Wis., who delivered the lecture that changed Stein’s ideas about gardening. “It’s not for conformists, either, who want what everybody else has. That made it perfect for Sara. She was totally contrarian.”

Locations