Wangari Maathai has devoted her life to her native Kenya, teaching her compatriots to nourish and care for the land that sustains them. Beautiful prose and illustrations capture her courage, persistence, and inspiration. Author’s Note.

This is the story of Wangari Maathai, who grew up in the green hills of Kenya. She knew as a young girl to honor nature. When she grew up, she went to college for five years in America studying biology. When she returned to Kenya, she found those once green hills were no longer green. The land was as bare as a desert making the people of the land poorer than ever. Wangari took a stand and said, "When we see that we are part of the problem, we can become part of the solution." From then on Wangari started teaching the women among the land to plant trees. "When the soil is exposed, it is crying out for help, it is naked and needs to be clothed in its dress. That is the nature of the land. It needs color, it needs its cloth of green."

I absolutely adore this book and the incredible message that it shares to young readers. This book teaches children that they can make a difference, one person at a time. This book also teaches children the importance and sacredness of the environment, how easily it can be taken advantage of, and how different life would be without a healthy and stable environment. ( )

While I appreciated Nivola's way of telling the story of Wangari Maathai, I felt that Nivola did not do her story justice. So many details were skimmed over or left out - I wanted to know more. However, I really enjoyed and was inspired by her effort in making her home Kenya feel like home. I learned that at a young age, she left Kenya to receive an education in America. She had only been gone for 5 years, but by the time she had returned everything had changed. A fig tree that was once deemed sacred had now been cut down, all of her childhood magic went with it. She led the reform of planting trees, getting many women and students in Kenya involved as well. ( )

This a beautiful biography of how one person aspired to change her homeland of Kenya for the better. Wangari loved her homeland and the fig trees. After spending some time away from Kenya, she returned to find her homeland in desperate need of help. The land she once loved was bare, people were going hungry, and water was sparse. Wangari could not stand by and do nothing at all! She decided to show all her people of Kenya how to plant trees to replace the trees cut down. You have to give back what you take. This process took time but the land that she loved was slowly returning thanks to Wangari and the people of Kenya. Don't like something? Well, change it! ( )

In the beginning of reading this book I wasn't too sure about all the new details. It told a different story, one where she asked and confronted the women in her village if they would help to start planting trees. However in the first book I read about Wangri, she seemed to not need an answer she figured out what was wrong and went for it. This book also didn't go into much details about the struggles of planting trees that she faced with the government. Some details I was a little confused by like for instance, what took place of the trees, In the first book I read it was more of buildings taking the place. However, in this book it was more of crops created to sell. I must say that this book went into much more detail about Wangari's life, but I wasn't sure what information was correct. ( )