Review Thursday: Children's Books

Planting the Trees of Kenya: The Story of Wangari Maathai by Claire A. Nivola, 2008

When Wangari Maathai returned to Kenya after attending college in the United States, she encountered a much-changed country. Once covered with luxurious forest, the Kenya she found was a nearly treeless wasteland. Farmers had removed so many trees to make way for crops that Kenya was in danger of becoming a desert. Maathai spearheaded a grassroots effort to bring Kenya back from ecological disaster. This inspirational story about how one person really can make a difference would be useful for teaching children about both social activism and environmental conservation. Reading Planting the Trees of Kenya in conjunction with Jeanette Winter’s Wangari’s Trees of Peace would provide an interesting comparison between different authorial treatments of the same subject matter.


What the World Eats by Peter Menzel, 2008

What does a family of five eat in a week? In Greenland, that might include 9 pounds of walrus meat, in Mongolia a pound of dried-milk candy. Twenty-five families around the world are interviewed and photographed over the course of a week of typical food consumption. Each entry includes a photo of the family posed in their home with a week’s rations on a table. In addition to the vivid photographs, What the World Eats includes numerous recipes, charts, and graphs. This title is perfect for young foodies or as an introduction to cross-cultural perspectives on a universal human activity. What the world Eats would be a fun read as a companion to It’s Disgusting and We Ate It: Fun Food Facts from Around the World – and Throughout History by James Solheim.


Money Madness by David A. Adler, 2009

Everyone wants money, but what is it exactly? Money Madness is an introduction to how money works as a medium of exchange and a store of value. By way of explaining the function of money, Adler also introduces younger readers to ideas such as the market, credit, and supply and demand. This is an excellent presentation in simple terms of many basic concepts in economics. Younger readers who are interested in understanding the current financial mess will find it particularly useful.