Wangari's Trees of Peace

Winter, Jeanette. (2010). Wangari’s trees of peace: A true story from Africa. Orlando, FL: Harcourt, Inc.

Summary: The story documents the life of Wangari Maathai, the 2004 Nobel Peace Prize winner who was recognized for her role in the Green Belt Movement. Maathai grew up in beautiful Kenya under the canopy of lush trees. Upon graduation, she traveled to the United States for her college education. When she returned to Kenya she was surprised to see that those trees were gone. In their place was a barren landscape primed for office buildings. Maathai took action. She started small and planted nine seedlings in her back yard. Then she convinced other Kenyan women to do the same and the movement grew and grew despite nay-sayers. Like the trees that line the Kenyan countryside today, Maathai’s impact remains. Readers will be inspired by the book’s many messages.

Read-Alike
If you enjoyed Wangari’s story, you might want to check out Planting the Trees of Kenya: The Story of Wangari’s Maathai.

Discussion Questions:

1. Explain how the people and the animals are affected by the clearing of the trees.
2. Compare Wangari’s movement to the first seedling she planted in 1977.

To read a transcript of an interview with author and illustrator Jeanette Winter, log on to http://www.harcourtbooks.com/authorinterviews/bookinterview_Winter.asp

Amelia Rules: The Tweenage Guide to Not Being Unpopular

Gownley, Jimmy. (2010). Amelia rules: The tweenage guide to not being unpopular. New York: Antheneum Books For Young Readers.

Summary: Amelia McCabe and her friends Rhonda and Joan attempt to successfully navigate the social ladder at Joe McCarthy Elementary School. Unfortunately, they can’t seem to get past the bottom rung – especially when Alpha girl Brittany is there to knock them down time and time again. Still, they hatch a plan to boost their popularity (or at least to shake the unpopularity that’s plagued them for the past few years). With the help of popularity guru Dr. V, they attempt to boost their self-esteem, make themselves over, and try out for the cheerleading squad. Will it be enough? The book allows insight into the clever tweenage mind of Amelia. Her sarcastic wit shines through and a flashback to Aunt Tanner’s dreadful high school experience is told through “old-school” comics. Simply put, I loved this book, and, in my opinion, Amelia is so cool.

Read-Alike: If you liked this book, then you might also like to read other books from the series. They include: The Whole World’s Crazy, What Makes You Happy, Superheroes, When the Past is a Present, and A Very Ninja Christmas.

Discussion Questions:
1. How are Amelia’s experiences similar or different to the experiences students have at your school?
2. Explain how Amelia changes as a character throughout this book. What is most important to her at the beginning of the book? What is most important to her in the end?
3. If you were in Amelia’s shoes, how would you have handled the situation?

For cool activities, book trailers, and a link to the author’s blog, check out www.ameliarules.com

Keeping Score

Park, L.S. (2008). Keeping Score. New York: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.

Summary: Maggie-O Fortini, named after Yankees great Joe DiMaggio, is a young girl growing up in Brooklyn in the 1950s. She loves her family, friends, her father’s fire station, and, yes, baseball. Maggie-O can’t play baseball (she’s a girl, remember), but she can do the next best thing: keep track of every strike, hit, and double-play for the team that is number 1 in heart, the Brooklyn Dodgers. She befriends Jim, a firefighter at her father’s fire station. Jim teaches Maggie how to track each and every play in her beloved team’s unsuccessful bid at winning the World Series. In time Jim is drafted and travels to Korea to fight in the war. Their friendship continues through an exchange in letters until the summer of 1952 when Jim’s letters abruptly stop. While Maggie fears the worst, she learns that Jim has been deeply affected by the war and has mentally withdrawn from the rest of the world. The book traces Maggie’s love for the game, her desperate attempts to try and help the Dodgers win the series, and most of all, her desire to help her friend in his time of need.

Read-Alikes: Two books that might be of interest to readers who like Keeping Score are The Homerun King by Patricia McKissik, the story of two brothers growing up during the Great Depression. The boys host a baseball player from the Negro league and hope to start a baseball team of their own. In addition, Fran Hurcomb’s Going Places might also be of interest to readers. Similar to Keeping Score, it features a female as its main character. The girls in Going Places hope to start a girls hockey team, however, not all residents in their town are happy about it. Their detractors use vandalism as a way of scaring them off.

Discussion Questions:
1. Why did Maggie feel so compelled to help the Dodgers baseball team? How did the ways in which she helped the team change throughout the book?
2. Which do you believe was more important to Maggie: helping her favorite team win or helping Jim? Explain why you feel this way.

Note: There are a number of questions available at the back of the book that would make nice discussion questions as well.

Author website: www.lindasuepark.com