Ages 4 8.Donna Jo Napoli is both a linguist and a writer of children's and YA fiction. Napoli (The Earth Shook) creates a vivid portrait of the community from which Maathai's tree-planting mission grows. After every encounter, a Kikuyu expression is repeated: 'Thayu nyumba Peace, my people.' Mama Miti, as Maathai comes to be known (it means 'mother of trees'), is rewarded not with fame or power but with the satisfaction of seeing Kenya restored. Maathai knows that some trees make good firewood, others form hedges to keep livestock safe, while the roots of others clean dirty water. Eat the berries.' Nelson's (We Are the Ship) breathtaking portraits of Maathai often have a beatific quality bright African textiles represent fields, mountains, and Maathai's beloved trees. 'Here are seedlings of the mubiru muiru tree. 'These are strong hands,' she tells a woman who does not have enough food to feed her family. While Nobel Medalist Wangari Maathai has been the subject of two earlier picture biographies (Jeanette Winter's Wangari's Trees of Peace and Claire Nivola's Planting the Trees of Kenya), this story is structured more like a folktale, portraying Maathai as healer and botanist.

Wangari Muta Maathai has changed Kenya tree by tree-and with each page turned, children will realize their own ability to positively impact the future. Today more than 30 million trees have been planted throughout Mama Miti’s native Kenya, and in 2004 she became the first African woman to win the Nobel Peace Prize. Through artful prose and beautiful illustrations, Donna Jo Napoli and Kadir Nelson tell the true story of Wangari Muta Maathai, known as “Mama Miti,” who in 1977 founded the Green Belt Movement, an African grassroots organization that has empowered many people to mobilize and combat deforestation, soil erosion, and environmental degradation. “A beautiful introduction for children just learning about the Greenbelt Movement.” - School Library JournalĬBC/NCSS Notable Social Studies Trade BookĬCBC Choices (Cooperative Children’s Book Council) “Nelson’s ( We Are the Ship) breathtaking portraits of Maathai often have a beatific quality bright African textiles represent fields, mountains, and Maathai’s beloved trees…Napoli ( The Earth Shook) creates a vivid portrait of the community from which Maathai’s tree-planting mission grows.” - Publishers Weekly (starred review) “Nelson’s pictures, a jaw-dropping union of African textiles collaged with oil paintings, brilliantly capture the villagers’ clothing and the greening landscape… This is, in a word, stunning.” - Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

Mama miti book