Posted by Tasha Saecker on May 12, 2008 1:30 PM
Planting the Trees of Kenya: The Story of Wangari Maathai by Claire A. Nivola.
This picture book tells the true story of Wangari Maathai, winner of the 2004 Nobel Peace Prize. When she was growing up in Kenya, the country was covered in green hills, trees, and crops. But when she returned back home after college, she discovered that the greenery was gone, people were struggling and starving and the trees had been chopped down. The entire country had moved from small family farms to large agricultural plantations. So she went to work to restore her homeland and bring back the trees, the clean water, and the food supply. Change did not come quickly, but by getting the women of Kenya to start making small changes at home, they began to plant trees and change Kenya forever.
Nivola's language is what really makes this book work. She simultaneously moves the book along at a brisk pace but also allows the words and images to linger momentarily. So as we learn about how Kenya used to be, we are given this gem of writing:
In the stream near her homestead where she went to collect water for her mother, she played with glistening frogs' eggs, trying to gather them like beads into necklaces, though they slipped through her fingers back into the clear water.
This isn't a lecture on how healthy ecosystems should be. Rather it is a moment, a captured image, a time when things were so right that they didn't need explanation. Readers, especially children, will know that intuitively. If you have the wonder of frog eggs, you have clean water and a healthy ecosystem. Also notice Nivola's grace with phrasing. Her words beg to be read aloud and when they are, they glide smoothly and tell the story effortlessly.
Her art is also winning. Featuring primarily large vistas of Kenya, they demonstrate just as much as the words the damage done to the environment. Again and again we are shown Wangari Maathai as part of that expanse, part of the community, one of many workers, never alone, isolated or individual. Nivola manages with her art to set her message in stone about the power of change, of heart, of womanhood.
Highly recommended for classroom use in grades 3-5. The perfect book to take out for Arbor Day, Earth Day, or any day when vistas, trees and hard work are needed. It works well as a read-aloud for older children who will start to ask themselves about the clearing of land in our own country and the damage it may be doing.
