by mdwallacebooks


Photo of Wangari Maathai courtesy:
http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/peace/laureates/2004/maathai.html

I love inspiring stories. At a recent book review meeting of librarians, educators and authors, member Annette Goldsmith (whose work includes the review of international children’s literature) shared a memoir about an amazing woman, Wangari Maathai,  who spear-headed a tree-planting campaign in Kenya and received the 2004 Nobel Peace Prize.

Wangari went to college in the United States and returned to Kenya where she formed the Green Belt Movement, encouraging other women to help her plant what is now over 30 million trees as she worked toward reestablishing the country’s forest ecosystem.

My own writings about nature focus on North America. But as I am now a founding fellow of the International League of Conservation Writers, this is a good time to look beyond America’s shores.

Here are four books about this African environmentalist:

Mama Miti, written by Donna Jo Napoli, illustrated by Kadir Nelson (ages 4-8)
Wangari’s Trees of Peace, by Jeanette Winter (ages 4-8)
Planting the Trees of Kenya: the Story of Wangari Maathai, by Claire A Nivola (ages 4-8)
Unbowed, A Memoir, by Wangari Maathai  (adult biography)