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Welcome to WEEK 5 of my Book-Jumper Summer Reading Series! This is my way of inspiring parents who are looking for creative ways to keep their kids reading this summer. All of our protagonists are girls or women and most of our showcased authors are women as well. I will be offering up a combination of themed weeks, great novels, booklist giveaways, and blog post recaps so be sure and stop by to discover more wonderful ways have A Book-jumper Summer while Exploring Our World and Beyond!

If you’re just tuning in, there are some great summer reading booklists here and here.

Wangari Maathai is one of my favorite people. The first time I discovered her was through this beautiful picture book called Mama Miti. Since then I’ve had the occasion to read about her several times, follow her Nobel Peace Prize award, and watch her green movement progress. Earlier this year I wrote a review of another book entitled Wangari Maathai by Franck Prevost for Women’s History month. To her people she is known as Mother of the Trees. However you come to know Wangari Maathai, I’m quite certain that you will be inspired by her story and determination to save her country.

 

Donna Jo Napoli tells the inspiring story of Wangari Maathai, the woman who planted trees.

 

On the highlands of Africa,

Near the forests and plains and a hue salt lick,

Wangari was born. The face of

Mount Kenya smiled down on her.

People told stories of how in the old days

Sometimes the sun shone too bright too long,

And droughts came. Creatures suffered.

Plants wilted. People fought.

So men held ceremonies under the mugumo

The spreading sacred fig tree

And the skies blessed them with shimmering rains

 to slake their thirst and water their farms.

Village elders placed staffs from the

Thigi tree between angry men,

And enemies became friends

Wangari listened to these stories. That’s how she came to love and respect trees. Excerpt from the book Mama Miti.

She was the first African woman to win the Nobel Peace prize. In her own garden she planted trees to be able to have fruits, shade, and to refresh her spirit.  She was also a very wise and educated, being the first woman with a doctorate in Africa.  Other women would come to her with their problems.  Each time she would tell them how strong they were and then give them a tree seedling which would be the answer to their problem.

Seed by seed, woman by woman the Kenyan countryside was filled with trees. Kenya had been changed one tree at a time.

 

Donna Jo Napoli is a brillant storyteller who invites us to admire Wangari Maathai but also to follow her example and take action as “Keepers of the Earth.”

Honoring the women who saved their country by planting trees, Kadir Nelson’s stunning and colorful artwork brings the story to life with his multi-textured collages.

Something To Do:

It’s very simple …..let’s plant some trees. Each person on this planet needs 15 trees per year to have enough oxygen to live. A few years ago we planted a fruit orchard. By doing so we now are getting lovely fruits to eat from spring through fall. This year we will add to the orchard but we will also take part in planting in our greenbelt area here.

A group that absolutely supports planting trees is the Arbor Day Foundation. If you don’t have room to plant the trees yourself, have a fund-raiser and let people like this restore forests. Let me know what you are planting. I would love to see them.

**Some of these links are affiliate links. The opinions expressed are purely my own.

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Looking for more ways to not only get your youngsters reading, but get them OUTSIDE as well? Enjoy more month-by-month activities based on the classic children’s tale, The Secret Garden! A Year in the Secret Garden is a delightful children’s book with over 120 pages, with 150 original color illustrations and 48 activities for your family and friends to enjoy, learn, discover and play with together. AND, it’s on sale for a limited time! Grab your copy ASAP and “meet me in the garden!” More details HERE! http://amzn.to/1DTVnuX

The post The BookJumper Summer Reading Series: Mama Miti appeared first on Jump Into A Book.

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By Frank S. Gilliam

We benefit from forests in ways that go well beyond our general understanding. So, I would like to begin by suggesting that as we responsible citizens observe Arbor Day 2014, we look at forests as more than simply numerous trees growing in stands. Rather, we need to look at forests as ecosystems that are not only important in and of themselves, but also provide essential functions—so-called ecosystem services—to sustain the quality of human life.

For those not totally familiar with its beginnings, Arbor Day began in an area not usually thought as forested. In the 1870s, J. Sterling Morton and his wife moved to the Nebraska Territory (it was not yet a state at that time) and observed the paucity of trees relative to their Michigan roots. And so it was, as the first of more than one million trees were planted 10 April 1872 in the state of Nebraska, that Arbor Day was born. The Mortons’ perspectives greatly anticipated the environmental ethics of Aldo Leopold of the 20th Century—consider this quote from Morton: “Each generation takes the earth as trustees.” What a wonderfully profound sentiment regarding stewardship of nature and natural resources! 

Although my family was not participating in an official Arbor Day activity at the time, I have a personal Arbor Day-like experience, one the benefits of which are reaped daily by my wife and me. We moved to our current home in Huntington, West Virginia in 1997, a time when our children were quite young. Now Huntington has the distinction of being the largest Tree City USA city in the state, according to the Arbor Day Foundation. That’s indeed quite notable, considering that West Viriginia is the 3rd most forested state (~77% forested) in the US, exceeded only by Maine (~86%) and New Hampshire (~78%) (Nebraska ranks 46th at ~2%). I took note of that immediately, seeing (primarily) oak trees throughout our new neighborhood. Not surprisingly, my children had never seen so many acorns that first fall, and I encouraged them to find one and plant it in the front yard. Nearly 20 years hence, we have a pin oak (Quercus palustris) as tall as our house, or more—all from that single acorn! That tree provides shade for the front of our house, mitigating summer heat, and it offers food and housing for animals, such as squirrels (and hummingbirds when we hang a feeder on the lower branches). It even allows us to plant shade-tolerant perennials, such as ferns, in our front yard.

But back to the ecosystem perspective. As ecosystems, forests provide a wide variety of services, all of which are essential in maintaining the quality of life on earth. They improve both air and water quality, and they provide some of the greatest biodiversity in the biosphere, comprising an impressive number of life forms and species. Indeed, forests are far more than just trees. Even plants as diminutive as those of the herbaceous layer—what one sees when looking down while walking in the forest—can play a role well beyond their apparent size. Despite its small physical stature, the herb layer comprises up to 90% of the plant diversity of the forest. I often refer to these plants collectively as “the forest between the trees.”

So, this Arbor Day 2014, we should all plant trees indeed! But as we do, let’s also keep in mind that our forests our essential to our own survival—and let’s treat them that way.

Frank Gilliam is a professor of biological sciences at Marshall University, and author of the second edition of The Herbaceous Layer in Forests of Eastern North America.

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Image Credit: (1) Barn Red Landscape Clouds Trees Sky Nature Field. Public Domain via Pixabay. (2) Creek and old-growth forest-Larch Mountain. Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons.

The post Arbor Day: an ecosystem perspective appeared first on OUPblog.

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(Yes, the Outhousers were correct…)

Valentines and St. Patrick’s Days are in the middle of the month, so don’t work too well for “30 Days”.  We could do 40 days of Lent, but it only gets good the last week or so.  So, to fill the void between Christmas and summer con season, we introduce…

Thirty Days of Arbor Day™ !!!!

Sure, it’s a lesser-known holiday, recently eclipsed by Earth Day.  But did you know that every state celebrates it?  (Although on different days, and months even!)  Every state has an official tree, and where would comics be without wood pulp?  It’s politically correct (save the environment), it’s creative (plant whatever you like), and hipsters love adopting crazy and obscure cultural phenomena!  (There have even been Google Doodles for Arbor Day!)

How crazy is it?  Well, a Nebraskan came up with the idea (after he moved there from New York, years before Nebraska became a territory).  The first Arbor Day, in 1872, two million trees were planted in Nebraska!  When there were only 122,993 people in the entire state!

If that’s not crazy enough, another Nebraskan (originally from Ohio) theorized that treeless western Nebraska could support a forest, resulting in a 20,000 acre National Forest, planted by hand!

And to add an extra level of geeky nerdiness to all this, J. Sterling Morton has his own botanical author abbreviation, and Charles E. Bessey created a taxonomy for flowering plants which serves as the foundation for modern classification of plants!

So join us as we celebrate trees and other plants all month long!  There will be a “24 Hours of Earth Day” series as well, so please send your recommendations!

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I’ve so enjoyed the poetry activities this National Poetry Month that I’m sorry to see it end. (April, are you ready for a break?) I spoke about poetry this month to elementary school students from prekindergarten to sixth grade and worked with young poets in Merrill, Marshall, and Winneconne, Wisconsin—and I loved every minute of every visit! Hello and thanks to all the helpful teachers, librarians, and PTO organizers!


Today is Arbor Day (read about it here), so I’m including a shape poem I wrote about trees and my own writer’s dilemma.


To celebrate Arbor Day and National Poetry Month, read some tree poems! Kristine O’Connell George’s Old Elm Speaks: Tree Poems is one of my all-time favorite collections. Poetrees is a new collection by Douglas Florian.

Writing Workout: Write a Shape Poem

A shape poem is also called a concrete poem or a spatial poem. You can find them in collections such as Doodle Dandies: Poems that Take Shape by J. Patrick Lewis, Splish Splash and Flicker Flash: Poems by Joan Bransfield Graham,  and A Poke in the I: A Collection of Concrete Poems, edited by Paul B. Janeczko.

To write a shape poem, choose a concrete object so you have a shape to work with. Write the poem first. Then fit it into its form. I used the WordArt feature in Microsoft® Office Word to create the poem above. Have fun!

Don't forget to join us in our first anniversary celebration and enter to win a critique of your work!

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Poetrees by Douglas Florian

Florian has turned his poetic talents to trees in this newest collection.  His poems move from the parts of a tree like bark and roots to specific types of trees.  He includes oaks, baobab, Japanese cedar, yews and many more.  In each, he celebrates what makes them unique and special.  He merges puns with poetry, offering a funny twist or humorous phrase.  Florian evokes the essence of trees with ease here.  His forest is one that is definitely worth wandering in.

Florian has also done the art work in this book.  Done with a variety of media on paper bags, they evoke a roughness, a bark and a natural feel that perfect mesh with the poems.  I particularly appreciate that you can see the folds and creases in the bags.  They make you want to run your fingers across the page, only to find them glossy smooth. 

Ideal for Earth Day or Arbor Day, this is a beautiful way to spend time with the trees around us.  Appropriate for ages 5-10.

Reviewed from copy received from Beach Lane Publishers.

Also reviewed by Jama Rattigan’s Alphabet Soup.

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Arbor Day Square by Kathryn O. Galbraith, illustrated by Cyd Moore

Everything in the prairie town is brand new because the town itself has just been built by settlers.  There is a church, stores, and a school, but what is missing is trees!  Everyone donates coins to send east for trees to plant.  When they arrive, Katie is alarmed at how small the trees are, but her father reassures her that they will live and grow.  Katie helps her father plant the trees, even a special dogwood in memory of her mother.  Year after year, the town gathered on Arbor Day to plant more and more trees.  Katie now came with her own daughter to celebrate the day and linger under her mother’s tree. 

This picture book is based on the creation of Arbor Day in the new state of Nebraska in 1872.  Ideal for release in April, this book is a glimpse into the history of Arbor Day and the importance of planting trees.  Galbraith’s text is simple and at times poetic.  She uses repeating phrases and rhythm subtly and effectively.  Particularly effective is having Katie as the protagonist of the story and the lens through which readers view the history and the planting.  Moore’s illustrations are soft with a lovely vintage tone to them that suits the subject.  The transformation from dusty prairie to a lush green  filled with trees is reflected in the illustrations with a nice gradual palette change.

Pick this one up for Arbor Day!  Appropriate for ages 4-7.

Reviewed from copy received from Peachtree Publishers.

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Most states celebrate Arbor Day at some point in April, although the actual date varies somewhat. Arbor Day was started in Nebraska by J. Sterling Morton. Morton missed the trees he had known when he lived in Detroit, so he decided to start planting trees at his new home. In honor of the day, here’s a “tree” poem by Aileen Fisher.

Let’s Plant A Tree
by Aileen Fisher

It’s time to plant a tree, a tree.
What shall it be? What shall it be?

Let’s plant a pine—we can’t go wrong:
a pine is green the whole year long.

Let’s plant a maple—more than one,
to shade us from the summer sun.

Let’s plant a cherry—you know why:
there’s nothing like a cherry pie!

Let’s plant an elm, the tree of grace,
where robins find a nesting place.

Let’s plant an apple—not too small,
with flowers in spring and fruit in fall.

Let’s plant a fir—so it can be
a lighted outdoor Christmas tree.

Let’s plant a birch, an oak, a beech,
there’s something extra-nice in each…
in winter, summer, spring or fall.
Let’s plant a …

why not plant them ALL?

From: Hopkins, Lee Bennett, Ed. 1992. Ring Out, Wild Bells: Poems About Holidays And Seasons. San Diego: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich.

*Invite the kids to cheer the words "Let's plant" at the beginning of each stanza; with practice, pairs of kids can each read aloud their own stanza; or create a paper version of pine, maple, cherry, elm, apple, fir and other trees mentioned in the poem and use them as "props" for the read aloud.

Happy Arbor Day!
And for a listing of more "tree" poems, check out my entry for April 22, 2007.

Picture credit: media.collegepublisher.com and thanks to Nora Sanchez for poem-finding.

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Listen to Book Bites for Kids, LIVE today on blogtalkradio.com, when my guest will be Lois V. Harris, author of a beautiful new children’s picture book, Mary Cassatt- Impressionist Painter.

Call in during the LIVE show and ask a question or make a comment - 1-646-716-9239.

author interviews, blogtalkradio, Book Bites for Kids, Lois V. Harris, Mary Cassatt

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Listen to Book Bites for Kids every weekday afternoon at 2:00 CST on blogtalkradio.com.

We have an exciting lineup of guest authors this week.

Today, Monday, October 15th, Kari-Lynn Winters, author of a darling new picture book from Orca Publishing called Jeffrey and Sloth will be out guest.

On Tuesday, October 16th, Lorijo Metz will be our guest to talk about her new picture book, Floridus Bloom and the Planet of Gloom.

On Wednesday, October 17th, YA novelist Sheryl McFarlane will join us to discuss her new novel, The Smell of Paint.

Sheri Sinykin will guest on Thursday, October 18th, to talk about her new book, Giving Up the Ghost.

On Friday, tune in to listen to the creator of The Eye Patch Kids DVD and puppets.

Listen to the show online at blogtalkradio.com or call in and ask a question or make a comment at 1-646-716-9239.

author interviews, blogtalkradio, Book Bites for Kids, Floridus Bloom and the Planet of Gloom, Giving Up the Ghost, Jeffrey and Sloth, The Eye Patch Kids, The Smell of Paint

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