Looking for something to do with your little one on those cold winter days?  ThePlayLab is a great indoor winter discovery area for young learners all year long.

Artists and Authors
Saturday, February 18, 11:00am – 2:00pm

Meet author Jen Cullerton Johnson as she reads from her award-winning book, Seeds of Change, and shares Wangari Maathai’s story—an environmentalist, scientist, and women’s right’s activist who inspired her country of Kenya to plant 30 million trees— and the first African woman to win the Nobel Peace Prize. Johnson will lead children in a seed planting activity echoing Wangari’s message of harabee, which means “let’s work together.”

Click here to learn about upcoming programs in the Crown Family PlayLab.

ISLMA

Illinois School Library Association Conference

Author’s Breakfast

October 29, 2011

7:30- 9:30 am

Springfield, Illinois

History of ISLMA

The Illinois School Library Media Association was formed on March 3, 1988 when a group of school library media professionals known as The Friends of School Libraries met at the Oak Brook Hills Conference Center and presented a proposal for formal organization. The necessary organizational tasks were begun immediately. They included filing for incorporation under the General Not for Profit Corporation Act of Illinois, and applying for 501e3 tax exempt status with the IRS.

ISLMA also became an affiliate of the American Association of School Librarians (AASL) with voting status, began a membership campaign, and planned and executed a major conference. Committee chairs and committee members were appointed and a newsletter was begun.

Dr. Wangari Muta Maathai, founder of the Green Belt Movement,  passed away on Sunday September 25 in Nairobi, Kenya at the age of 71.  Named one of the heroines of the world, she was a great advocate for human rights and the environment who inspired the planting of more than 20 million trees.

She won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2004, the first African woman to do so.

Wangari Maathai’s dedication to protecting trees and forests began with her appreciation of the rural village environment she grew up in.  In her words,

In a message to the world’s children, Wangari Maathai said,

“Whatever you are doing, wherever you are, do not feel discouraged.”

We honor her by reminding all children that she lives on through the many books that have been written about her and will continue to be written. Here are some of them:

Seeds of Change, by Jen Cullerton Johnson, illustrated by Sonia Lynn Sadler.

Wangari’s Trees of Peace: A True Story from Africa, by Jeannette Winter.

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

Mama Miti, by Donna Jo Napoli, illustrated by Kadir Nelson.

Wangari Maathai, the Woman who Plants Millions of Trees, by Franck Prevot, illustrated by Aurelia Fronty.

What You Can Do

Support the Green Belt Movement

Wangari Maathai passed on to.

Our planet and our people celebrate her life.

Beloved Wangari:

May the road rise up to meet you.
May the wind always be at your back.
May the sun shine warm upon your face,
and rains fall soft upon your fields.
And until we meet again,
May God hold you in the palm of His hand.

By Jen Cullerton Johnson

I live in an urban environment where skyscrapers hem in nature. Animals dwell in cages at the zoos. Gardens and greenery thrive in manicured parks. Buoys block off Lake Michigan. Even the stars disappear under the brightness of streetlights.  The hours I spend inside my house on the computer surpass the time I spend outside.

When I began researching and writing Seeds of Change about the life of Wangari Maathai the first African Woman to win the Nobel Prize for the environment, I wasn’t a Greenie. In fact, my contributions to saving the planet rested on turning off lights, recycling, and an occasional bike to work day. Nature, I felt belonged to another world, a world separated from mine.

At first, what drew me to writing about Wangari Maathai’s life for children was not the fact that she planted 30 million trees in Kenya but her persistence to find solutions for difficult problems.  How do you conquer poverty without destroying the land?  How do you preserve the land without disempowering the poor? Wangari took these two complicated issues, poverty and the environment, and found her own answer. Wangari taught poor women a very specific skill; how to plant a tree. By doing so the women planted trees all over Kenya, creating what looked like green belts across the land. The powerful image of green growing again in Kenya gave birth to the name Green Belt Movement. A movement, I might add that thrives today as an international organization for the environment and the rights of the disempowered.

When I stared the research for Seeds of Change there were only a few academic journals about Wangari Maathai and the Green Belt Movement. I drew heavily on Wangari’s biography, Unbowed (Simon & Schuster 2006). Wangari spoke to many different kinds of people from poor women to presidents, school children to ambassadors. Her words inspired all around her to action. You can feel her persistence and commitment in her speeches. Her words moved me from a passive watcher to an active doer. When she said Hajabee, Let’s work together, I understood it didn’t just mean turning off a light or recycling a water bottle but being aware of my actions and how my actions impact the world around me.

Community for everyone is essential, especially writers. In the early stages of Seeds of Change, I was fortunate to have Esther Hershenhorn critique my manuscript. Her astute advice was to ask me how my experiences related to Wangari’s. I think her suggestion made all the difference to me as I searched for Wangari’s voice and my own.

I wanted readers to “hear Wangari”. I decided I would take every opportunity to use Wangari’s own words, so when the book is read, it feels as if Wangari Maathai is the room since the words belong to her. Also Wangari Marathi’s life had many challenges. She was thrown in jail for planting trees. My editor Jennifer Fox at Lee & Low never hesitated, never doubted that telling the truth was important to telling Wangari’s story. There is a line in Seeds of Change that says, “One day while she was out planting a tree, some wealthy businessmen paid corrupt police officers to arrest Wangari.” This is a tricky line with big implications. But Lee & Low did not shy away from the truth, but like the life of Wangari Maathai, they stood film. I will always be grateful to them for their deep respect for story and truth telling.

When Seeds of Change came out, I wanted to embrace Wangari’s idea of putting ideas into practice. I understood now how I coexisted in nature. Our worlds were one, not separate. Whenever I go on a school visit, do a reading or presentation I make sure that after Seeds of Change is read, the students or the audience has a chance to make a connection between themselves and nature.  Sometimes we plants trees, other times seeds, but each time there is a connection to reading and doing. People need to dig in the dirt, roll a seed between their fingers, touch the leaves of different plants so that they know that Wangari’s experience of embracing nature and caring for the environment can also be part of their own experience.

See more of Wangari in the documentary Taking Root

I think environmental books for children are doing just that-inspiring and moving readers to action. I am very grateful Seeds of Change is part of the genre. I hope new writers push ahead and continue to explore how our nature world and our human place in it is both one of many, and many for the good of all.

For more information, please check out the link!