Planting the Trees of Kenya: The Story of Wangari Maathai (Frances Foster Books) [Hardcover]

Claire A. Nivola (Author)

Book Description

Release date: April 1, 2008 | Age Range: 5 - 8 years | Series: Frances Foster Books | Lexile Measure: 1030L (What's this?)

Wangari Maathai, winner of the 2004 Nobel Peace Prize and founder of the Green Belt Movement, grew up in the highlands of Kenya, where fig trees cloaked the hills, fish filled the streams, and the people tended their bountiful gardens. But over many years, as more and more land was cleared, Kenya was transformed. When Wangari returned home from college in America, she found the village gardens dry, the people malnourished, and the trees gone. How could she alone bring back the trees and restore the gardens and the people?

Bill McKibben, author of The End of Nature, says: “Wangari Maathai’s epic story has never been told better—everyone who reads this book will want to plant a tree!”

With glowing watercolor illustrations and lyrical prose, Claire Nivola tells the remarkable story of one woman’s effort to change the fate of her land by teaching many to care for it. An author’s note provides further information about Wangari Maathai and the Green Belt Movement. In keeping with the theme of the story, the book is printed on recycled paper.

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

*Starred Review* Kenyan activist Wangari Maathai was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2004 for her environmental and human rights achievements. Founder of the Green Belt Movement, she has encouraged people to repair their economy, land, and health with simple, environmentally friendly acts, such as planting more trees. This beautiful picture-book biography echoes the potent simplicity of Maathai’s message with direct, spare prose and bright, delicate watercolors. Tracking forward from Maathai’s childhood in the rich landscape of Kenya’s highlands, the words and pictures clearly show how the activist’s deep connection with nature as a youth inspired her to develop sustainable practices as an adult. Nivola writes about potentially complex, abstract relationships, such as those between ecological preservation and human health, with clear language that shows connections that children will easily grasp. The story of how each human and tree can make a difference will inspire young people, who will want to linger over the wide, double-page landscapes picturing people restoring stripped land to green, thriving communities and forests. An author’s note offers more about Maathai’s inspiring story. Point teachers and parents seeking more information to Maathai’s autobiography, Unbowed (2006), which was named a Booklist Adult Editor’s Choice. Grades K-3. --Gillian Engberg

Review

“Wangari’s work, as so beautifully depicted in Planting the Trees of Kenya, will inspire people worldwide.” –Pete Seeger

 

"The 2004 Nobel Peace Prize winner, Wangari Maathai changed the world one seed at a time. Claire A. Nivola's lovely Planting the Trees of Kenya offers Maathai's story to a younger, wider audience.  No child, and surely no library, ought to be without Planting the Trees of Kenya." —Boston Globe

“A stirring biography about her extraordinary life, with focus on courageous efforts to reforest Kenya and empower women.” —The San Francisco Chronicle

"Simultaneously childlike and sophisticated...The idea of restoring ruined land to its original beauty will fill readers of all ages with hope." —Starred, Publishers Weekly

 

"Beautiful . . . The story of how each human and tree can make a difference will inspire young people, who will want to linger over the wide, double-page landscapes." —Starred, Booklist

 

"The delicately detailed illustrations suit the equally low-key writing style...This tale of civic responsibility, personal initiative, and conservation of natural resources is a timely one." —Starred, School Library Journal

“There’s plenty to discover in the intricate pen-and-watercolor illustrations; the text is more detailed and will engage older children.” —American Scientist

"Possesses a detailed, naive charm that beautifully explicates Maathai's social progress as she instructs women, schoolchildren and even prison inmates in the benefits of planting and nurturing trees...This impressive effort will resonate with children." —Kirkus Reviews

 

"As an illustrator, Nivola . . . creates absorbing, telltale images--sweeping views of the countryside with miniature human figures, in the manner of folk paintings . . . .The whole is as much a pleasure as an inspiration." —The Horn Book

 

“Claire Nivola gives us a wonderful story about Wangari Maathai, the winner of the 2004 Nobel Peace Prize and the founder of the Green Belt movement.”

—Rondi Brouwer, Blackwood & Brouwer, Kinderhook, NY

 

"Nivola's sotry delivers the idea that each of us can make a difference. Older readers will appreciate Nivola's detailed note about Maathai's life and her Green Belt Movement." —The Sacramento Bee

 

"Wangari Maathai's story is beautifully told, is just the right length for young readers, and boasts wonderful illustrations that capture the beauty of this African country." —Book Loons

 

 

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Age Range: 5 - 8 years
  
• Hardcover: 32 pages
• Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux (BYR); First Edition edition (April 1, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0374399182
• ISBN-13: 978-0374399184
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 10.9 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.5 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #33,699 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #9 in Books > Children's Books > Science, Nature & How It Works > Nature > Environment
  • #14 in Books > Children's Books > Travel & Cultures > Explore the World > Africa

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Planting the Trees of Kenya April 26, 2008

By Kirsten G. Cutler

Format:Hardcover

Nivola, Claire A. Planting the Trees of Kenya: The Story of Wangari Maathai. Farrar, Straus and Giroux. 2008.

This beautiful story of the Green Belt Movement in Kenya launched by Nobel Peace Prize winner Wangari Maathai details how she grew up appreciating nature and its bounty, attended college in America and studied biology, and then returned to her homeland only to find that new farming practices threatened the health and well-being of her fellow citizens. Although, the people were understandably inclined to blame the government for their deteriorating situation, Wangari encouraged the women to instead plant trees: to gather seeds, dig for water, and nurture seedlings. "All this was heavy work, but the women felt proud. Slowly, all around them, they could begin to see the fruit of the work of their hands. The woods were growing up again." Wangari "taught the children how to make their own nurseries. She gave seedling to inmates of prisons and even to soldiers." Since Wangari began in 1977, over "thirty million trees have been planted in Kenya" - an impressive feat. Lovely watercolor paintings illustrate this simple inspiring story: village scenes show women and children listening to Wangari explain her proposal, and an awesome double-spread shows a line of people marching in an endless line, carrying seedlings and tools for planting. This wonderful picture book evocatively spreads an important environmental message

14 of 15 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Richie's Picks: PLANTING THE TREES OF KENYA: THE STORY OF WANGARI MAATHAI April 3, 2008

By Richie Partington VINE™ VOICE

Format:Hardcover

"The farms of Ohio had been replaced by shopping malls And muzak filled the air from Seneca to Cuyahoga Falls." -- The Pretenders, "My City was Gone"

"As Wangari Maathai tells it, when she was growing up on a farm in the hills of central Kenya, the earth was clothed in its dress of green.
"Fig trees, olive trees, crotons, and flame trees covered the land, and fish filled the pure waters of the streams.
"The fig tree was sacred then, and Wangari knew not to disturb it, not even to carry its fallen branches home for firewood. 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 clear water."

But in the early 1960s Wangari Maathai left Kenya for five years in order to attend college in Kansas. It was during that time that Kenya gained independence from Britain. And in the manner with which Claire Nivola tells and illustrates the story, Wangari's return to Kenya reminds me of the old Pretenders' song. For there had been numerous and radical changes in the landscape of Kenya during Wangari's absence:

"Wangari found the fig tree cut down, the little stream dried up, and no traces of frogs, tadpoles, or the silvery beads of eggs...Wangari noticed that the people no longer grew what they ate but bought food from stores. The store food was expensive, and the little they could afford was not as good for them as what they had grown themselves, so that children, even grownups, were weaker and often sickly."

Meanwhile, the cutting of the remaining forests for wood to burn as fuel led to widespread erosion and the degradation of streams and rivers.

And so it was that Wangari Maathai came up with her "simple and big idea" of getting tens, then hundreds, then thousands of Kenyans to grow and plant trees. Her idea evolved into the Greenbelt Movement and, in the long run, led to her winning the Nobel Peace Prize in 2004.

Claire Nivola's watercolor paintings climax with a two page spread in which an endless stream of Kenyans carrying seedlings are seen traversing the mountains to a hillside where the forest is being restored meter by meter.

The story is followed by an extensive Author's Note which includes information about Wangari putting her body on the line in recent years to fight ill-conceived government schemes.

At a time when I am so often distraught due to the seemingly inevitable deterioration of the planet I am leaving my children, it is inspiring to read a book that so well illustrates how one person's singular vision, determination, and leadership can radically (and literally) transform the landscape.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Rutgers University Project on Economics and Children August 14, 2008

By Yana V. Rodgers

Format:Hardcover

As a child growing up on a farm in Kenya's Central Highlands, Wangari Maathai delighted in the beauty of the fig, olive, and flame trees that graced the landscape, and she valued the clear water of the stream that flowed near her home. Sadly, these conditions changed for the worse in just a very short time while Wangari attended college in the United States. Distressed to return home to deforestation, soil erosion, dirty water, and a worsening in people's well-being, Wangari resolved to become a part of the solution. Her simple but powerful idea to start planting trees grew into a national movement that ultimately led to over forty million new trees planted in Kenya. Wangari's activist efforts included educating women, men, and children about why it was so important to their livelihood to plant tree seedlings. In 2004 she won the Nobel Peace Prize, the first African woman to receive this honor.

Children and adults alike will appreciate this book for its powerful message, rich illustrations, and informative author's note. Numerous economics ideas are woven into the text, with particular emphasis on the consequences of scarcity, the replenishment of natural resources, and the strengthening of women's autonomy. Despite the weighty topic, the tone is gentle. Children will unwittingly gain an important lesson in environmental activism while they enjoy an interesting story.