Seeds of Change

April 12, 2010
With at least three other picture books out about Nobel Prize–winner Wangari Maathai—Planting the Trees of Kenya
(2008), Wangari’s Trees of Peace
(2008), and Mama Miti
(2010)—another volume about the Kenyan activist might seem to crowd a full shelf. This one, though, provides older children with a more thorough investigation of Maathai’s life. Debut author Johnson includes an account of Maathai’s training for a doctorate in biology and the obstacles she faced, sets her tree-planting initiative in the context of her political career, and identifies her adversaries as “Foreign business people, greedy for more land for their coffee plantations and trees for timber.” The highly stylized figures in Sadler’s (Ma Dear’s Old Green House
) scratchboard spreads are outlined in white, lending them a stained-glass feel. Trees, leaves, and water are simplified into elemental shapes, giving the whole the appearance of a tropically colored quilt. Throughout the book runs the image of the Kikuyu people’s sacred mugumo
tree as the source of Maathai’s tree-planting project, an idea “as small as a seed but as tall as a tree that reaches for the sky.” Ages 6–11.

April 1, 2010
Gr 2-4-This entry on Wangari Maathai takes a slightly more comprehensive look at her life than several other recent books. Her deep love of nature and her determination, first to get an education and later to save the environment and ultimately the people of Kenya, are discussed. Foreign business interests and the duplicity of "corrupt police" forced her first into prison, then politics, and ultimately into spreading her message to the wider world. The book closes as she received the Nobel Peace Prize in 2004. An afterword adds more detail on the Green Belt Movement. Vivid colors sparkle from within the thick white outlines in the batik-style illustrations that fill the pages."Carol S. Surges, McKinley Elementary School, Wauwatosa, WI"

Copyright 2010 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

June 1, 2010
Grades 2-4 Nobel Peace Prize winner Wangari Maathai has become a popular subject for the elementary-school crowd: this title marks the fourth picture-book biography about the Kenyan environmentalist to be released in the last two years. More than the previous offerings, Johnsons title discusses Maathais education, particularly the role that her brother played in advocating that his sister attend school, and later, at college in the U.S., the inspiration Maathai found in her female science professors: From them she learned that a woman could do anything she wanted to. Throughout the poetic text, Johnson includes direct quotes, sourced in appended notes, which will help young people feel a more immediate connection to the inspiring activist and her powerful message. Sadlers bright mixed-media art, reminiscent of Ashley Bryans work with its white outlines and rainbow-hued shapes, reinforces the sense of a depleted land growing green again and the presence, even in bustling city scenes, of a vibrant natural world. An authors note and resources conclude this title, which complements, rather than duplicates, other recent titles about Maathai.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2010, American Library Association.)

July 1, 2010
This biography of Wangari Maathai, the Kenyan scientist and environmentalist and the first African woman to win the Nobel Peace Prize, is informative but overwritten: "Like a sturdy tree against a mighty wind, her faith kept her strong." The oil and scratchboard illustrations call to mind stained glass, with panes of color separated by white lines. Bib.

(Copyright 2010 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)