Wangari’s Trees of Peace: A True Story from Africa (review)

Kenya’s industrialization in the twentieth century meant eradication of many of the native trees. Wangari Maathi, returning to her native country after study abroad, is stunned to see the depredation and grieved by its effects on the local women, who now have to travel far from home to accrue necessary firewood. Wangari decides to plant seedlings, convincing village women to do likewise, and offering financial reward for surviving seedlings. Her refusal to yield to development plans sends her to jail, but the women of Kenya continue planting, and much of Kenya’s vegetation was finally restored. It’s a nice chronicle, pared down to make an effective story. In its streamlining, however, it misleads, depicting Maathi as a modern-day Johnny Appleseed rather than a challenging political activist who was imprisoned for considerably more than trying to preserve trees (and more than once). Even the closing author’s note, mentioning Maathi’s Nobel Peace Prize and her current position as an MP, doesn’t acknowledge the reforestation as a linchpin of her broader commitment to sustainable development, let alone her political involvement beyond that. Winter’s familiar color-bordered squares of flat-toned acrylic images make particularly effective use of color schemes, with Wangari’s multi-hued outfit ensuring she stands out in images, and the background tones subtly emphasizing the absence or presence of green growth in the pictured landscape. The compact story does offer a way into one of our less-limned Nobel Prize winners, and with adults to fill the gaps in, this could be an appealing introduction.