Mama Miti: Wangari Maathai and the Trees of Kenya

Be the first to write a review
Pick Up In Store

Pick Up in Store

Reserve and pick up in 60 minutes at your local store

Hardcover
$15.38
BN.com price
$17.99 List Price (Save 15%)
Marketplace (New and Used)
from
$9.10
$17.99 List Price (Save 49%)
Usually ships in 1-2 business days
All (25)  
Used (5)  
New (20)  
Close
Sort by
Page 1 of 3
Showing 1 – 10 of 25 (3 pages)
$9.10
(Save 49%)
New Chapter Recycling
Seller since 2010

Feedback rating:

(3285)

Condition:

New — never opened or used in original packaging.

Like New — packaging may have been opened. A "Like New" item is suitable to give as a gift.

Very Good — may have minor signs of wear on packaging but item works perfectly and has no damage.

Good — item is in good condition but packaging may have signs of shelf wear/aging or torn packaging. All specific defects should be noted in the Comments section associated with each item.

Acceptable — item is in working order but may show signs of wear such as scratches or torn packaging. All specific defects should be noted in the Comments section associated with each item.

Used — An item that has been opened and may show signs of wear. All specific defects should be noted in the Comments section associated with each item.

Refurbished — A used item that has been renewed or updated and verified to be in proper working condition. Not necessarily completed by the original manufacturer.

Good

Ships from: Lakewood, WA

Usually ships in 1-2 business days

  • •Canadian
  • •International
  • •Standard, 48 States
  • •Standard (AK, HI)
  • •Express, 48 States
  • •Express (AK, HI)
$9.11
(Save 49%)
Books Any
Seller since 2010

Feedback rating:

(1916)

Condition: New
Nelson, Kadir 2010 Hard cover New. Sewn binding. Paper over boards. With dust jacket. 40 p. Contains: Illustrations. Intended for a juvenile audience.

Ships from: Valley Stream, NY

Usually ships in 1-2 business days

  • •Canadian
  • •Standard, 48 States
  • •Standard (AK, HI)
  • •Express, 48 States
  • •Express (AK, HI)
$9.39
(Save 48%)
spellbound PA
Seller since 2005

Feedback rating:

(9713)

Condition: New
1/5/2010 Hardcover 1St Edition New 1416935053 NEW/UNREAD! ! ! Publisher overstock. --Be Sure to Compare Seller Feedback and Ratings before Purchasing--

Ships from: McKeesport, PA

Usually ships in 1-2 business days

  • •Canadian
  • •International
  • •Standard, 48 States
  • •Standard (AK, HI)
  • •Express, 48 States
  • •Express (AK, HI)
$9.65
(Save 46%)
Great Book Deals
Seller since 2008

Feedback rating:

(12283)

Condition: New
Absolutely Brand New & In Stock. 100% 30-Day Money Back. Direct from our warehouse. Over 5+ Million Customers served. In business since 1997. Happy Customers is Our #1 Goal. ... Customer Service toll free upport Monday-Friday EST Hrs. 4 to 14 business day Delivery Time by US Post Office. Read more Show Less

Ships from: Oldsmar, FL

Usually ships in 1-2 business days

  • •Standard, 48 States
  • •Standard (AK, HI)
$10.44
(Save 42%)
PaperbackshopUS
Seller since 2009

Feedback rating:

(4793)

Condition: New
Shipped from US in 4 to 14 business days. Established seller since 2000

Ships from: Aurora, IL

Usually ships in 1-2 business days

  • •Standard, 48 States
  • •Standard (AK, HI)
$10.44
(Save 42%)
ExpeditedBooksUS
Seller since 2010

Feedback rating:

(887)

Condition: New
Shipped from US. Express shipping in 3 to 6 business days. Standard shipping in 4 to 14 business days. Established seller since 2000

Ships from: Aurora, IL

Usually ships in 1-2 business days

  • •Standard, 48 States
  • •Standard (AK, HI)
  • •Express, 48 States
  • •Express (AK, HI)
$10.63
(Save 41%)
TrackedBooksUS
Seller since 2012

Feedback rating:

(88)

Condition: New
Shipped from US in 4 to 14 business days standard or 3 to 6 business days express. FREE TRACKING WITH EVERY ORDER! Established seller since 2000

Ships from: Aurora, IL

Usually ships in 1-2 business days

  • •Standard, 48 States
  • •Standard (AK, HI)
  • •Express, 48 States
  • •Express (AK, HI)
$11.03
(Save 39%)
PaperbackshopUS
Seller since 2009

Feedback rating:

(4793)

Condition: New
Shipped from US in 4 to 14 business days. Established seller since 2000

Ships from: Aurora, IL

Usually ships in 1-2 business days

  • •Standard, 48 States
  • •Standard (AK, HI)
$11.14
(Save 38%)
indoo
Seller since 2007

Feedback rating:

(21684)

Condition: New
BRAND NEW

Ships from: Avenel, NJ

Usually ships in 1-2 business days

  • •Canadian
  • •International
  • •Standard, 48 States
  • •Standard (AK, HI)
$11.44
(Save 36%)
SuperBookDeals-
Seller since 2008

Feedback rating:

(14101)

Condition: New
Brand New, Perfect Condition, Please allow 4-14 business days for delivery. 100% Money Back Guarantee, Over 1,000,000 customers served.

Ships from: South Bend, IN

Usually ships in 1-2 business days

  • •Canadian
  • •International
  • •Standard, 48 States
  • •Standard (AK, HI)
Page 1 of 3
Showing 1 – 10 of 25 (3 pages)
Close
Sort by
NOOK Book (NOOK Kids Read to Me) 
A digital children's book featuring embedded audio that can be turned on or off, for use with the NOOK Color reader
$12.99
BN.com price

Available on NOOK devices and apps

  • NOOK Color
  • NOOK Tablet
  • NOOK Kids for iPad

Want a NOOK? Explore Now

More About This Book

Overview

Through artful prose and beautiful illustrations, Donna Jo Napoli and Kadir Nelson tell the true story of Wangari Muta Maathai, known as “Mama Miti,” who in 1977 founded the Green Belt Movement, an African grassroots organization that has empowered many people to mobilize and combat deforestation, soil erosion, and environmental degradation. Today more than 30 million trees have been planted throughout Mama Miti’s native Kenya, and in 2004 she became the first African woman to win the Nobel Peace Prize. Wangari Muta Maathai has changed Kenya tree by tree—and with each page turned, children will realize their own ability to positively impact the future.

Editorial Reviews

Abby McGanney Nolan
When Wangari Maathai won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2004, her Green Belt Movement had planted 30 million trees in Africa, starting in her native Kenya. Her big-picture approach has also led to a healthy crop of children's books, including this new one, whose big pictures are especially dazzling.
—The Washington Post
Publishers Weekly
While Nobel Medalist Wangari Maathai has been the subject of two earlier picture biographies (Jeanette Winter's Wangari's Trees of Peace and Claire Nivola's Planting the Trees of Kenya), this story is structured more like a folktale, portraying Maathai as healer and botanist. “These are strong hands,” she tells a woman who does not have enough food to feed her family. “Here are seedlings of the mubiru muiru tree.... Plant as many as you can. Eat the berries.” Nelson's (We Are the Ship) breathtaking portraits of Maathai often have a beatific quality; bright African textiles represent fields, mountains, and Maathai's beloved trees. Maathai knows that some trees make good firewood, others form hedges to keep livestock safe, while the roots of others clean dirty water. After every encounter, a Kikuyu expression is repeated: “Thayu nyumba—Peace, my people.” Mama Miti, as Maathai comes to be known (it means “mother of trees”), is rewarded not with fame or power but with the satisfaction of seeing Kenya restored. Napoli (The Earth Shook) creates a vivid portrait of the community from which Maathai's tree-planting mission grows. Ages 4–8. (Jan.)
More Reviews (3) Fewer Reviews
Children's Literature
Wangari Maathai, winner of the 2004 Nobel Peace Prize, is an inspiration to all, but particularly to those who believe that caring individuals can change the world. Born near Mt. Kenya, Wangari worked in the city but never forgot her roots. To a woman who needs food, Wangari gives seedlings of a tree. The woman shares the berries and seeds with her neighbors. Wangari then gives a poor woman tree seedlings that will produce the firewood she needs. Soon women come from all over Kenya for her help and advice. To each she gives seedlings to plant for their problem. Soon all over Kenya trees are back, thirty million of them. "Wangari changed a country, tree by tree." The moving cadence of Napoli's prose, punctuated by the repeated Kikuya and English, "Peace, my people," is matched with the impressive fabric collages and oils Nelson uses to illuminate the nation's verdant landscapes as well as the patterned clothing of the women. His strong, naturalistic portraits show strength of character along with the will to make a difference. The large format reinforces the compelling, visual story. An Afterword, author's and illustrator's notes, and a glossary all add information. Reviewer: Ken Marantz and Sylvia Marantz
School Library Journal
Gr 3–4—This idealistic account focuses on Wangari's wisdom in advising women to plant different kinds of trees to solve their particular economic problems. "Here are seedlings of the mukinduri. This tree makes good firewood." "Plant a tree. A mukawa. Its thorns will keep out predators." Napoli inserts a Kikuyu phrase and its translation after each bit of Wangari's advice. "Thayu nyumba"—"Peace, my people." The story seems to suggest that the trees were a rather quick solution to the people's problems of hunger and poverty in Kenya's devastated landscape. "Soon cool, clear waters teemed with black, wriggling tadpoles…. All over the countryside the trees that had disappeared came back." Nelson depicts the various women and the greening of the landscape in bold collages of textile prints joined with strong painted portraits. The poetic, abbreviated story has little biographical detail, emphasizing the planting of millions of trees and the resulting prosperity and peace for the country and its people. The preface describing the ill effects of earlier drought and the broad sweep of text provide less concrete information and explanation than Claire A. Nivola's Planting the Trees of Kenya (Farrar) and Jeanette Winter's Wangari's Trees of Peace (Harcourt, both 2008). The information is too vague for primary grade children, and probably too skimpy for older grades. Still, the book could serve as a beautiful introduction for children just learning about the Greenbelt Movement. Concluding materials include an afterword for adults, a source note, a Kikuyu glossary, a list of Web sites most useful for adults, and a brief note from the illustrator.—Margaret Bush, SimmonsCollege, Boston
Kirkus Reviews
Napoli adopts a folkloric narrative technique to showcase the life work of Wangari Maathai, whose seminal role in Kenya's reforestation earned her the Nobel Peace Prize in 2004. When, one after the other, women journey to Maathai to seek counsel about scarce food, disappearing firewood and ailing animals, she tells them, "Plant a tree . . . .Thayu nyumba-peace, my people." Specific tree species and their utility are mentioned in the text and reiterated in a glossary. Nelson's pictures, a jaw-dropping union of African textiles collaged with oil paintings, brilliantly capture the villagers' clothing and the greening landscape. The richly modulated oils portray the dignified, intent gazes of Maathai and other Kenyans, and the illustrator's signature use of perspective suggests the everyday heroism of his subjects. In addition to incorporating the fabric collages (and some whimsy in his animal depictions), the artist newly focuses on landscape, with many double-page spreads depicting undulating fields, distant mountains and a white-hot sky. Deserving of a special place with Claire Nivola's Planting the Trees of Kenya (2008), this is, in a word, stunning. (afterword, glossary, author's and illustrator's notes) (Picture book. 4-8)

Product Details

  • ISBN-13: 9781416935056
  • Publisher: Simon & Schuster/Paula Wiseman Books
  • Publication date: 1/5/2010
  • Pages: 40
  • Sales rank: 204,368
  • Age range: 4 - 8 Years
  • Lexile: AD710L (what's this?)
  • Product dimensions: 9.20 (w) x 12.20 (h) x 0.50 (d)

Meet the Author

Donna Jo Napoli is an acclaimed and award-winning author of children's books.  She won the Golden Kite Award for Stones in Water in 1997. Her novel Zel was named an American Bookseller Association Pick of the List, a Publishers Weekly Best Book, a BCCB Blue Ribbon, and a School Library Journal Best Book, and a number of her other novels have been selected as ALA Best Books. Her recent picture books include The Earth Shook and Mama Miti. Donna Jo is the head of the linguistics department at Swarthmore College in Pennsylvania, where she lives with her husband and their children. You can visit her online at donnajonapoli.com

Kadir Nelson is the widely acclaimed illustrator of many books for children, including Thunder Rose, written by Jerdine Nolen, which received a Coretta Scott King Illustrator Honor Award; Ellington Was Not a Street, written by Ntozake Shange, which received a Coretta Scott King Illustrator Award; and Hewitt Anderson's Great Big Life, written by Jerdine Nolen, which won the 2005 Society of Illustrators Gold Medal. He is also the illustrator of Deloris Jordan and Roslyn M. Jordan's Salt in His Shoes and Spike Lee and Tonya Lewis Lee's Please, Baby, Please and Please, Puppy, Please. Mr. Nelson lives with his family in San Diego, California.

Customer Reviews

Be the first to write a review
( 0 )

Rating Distribution

5 Star

(0)

4 Star

(0)

3 Star

(0)

2 Star

(0)

1 Star

(0)

Your Rating:

Review Guidelines
Add Recommendations
Your Name: Create a Pen Name or Leave Anonymously

Barnes & Noble.com Review Rules

Our reader reviews allow you to share your comments on titles you liked, or didn't, with others. By submitting an online review, you are representing to Barnes & Noble.com that all information contained in your review is original and accurate in all respects, and that the submission of such content by you and the posting of such content by Barnes & Noble.com does not and will not violate the rights of any third party. Please follow the rules below to help ensure that your review can be posted.

Reviews by Our Customers Under the Age of 13

We highly value and respect everyone's opinion concerning the titles we offer. However, we cannot allow persons under the age of 13 to have accounts at BN.com or to post customer reviews. Please see our Terms of Use for more details.

What to exclude from your review:

Please do not write about reviews, commentary, or information posted on the product page. If you see any errors in the information on the product page, please send us an email.

Reviews should not contain any of the following:

  • - HTML tags, profanity, obscenities, vulgarities, or comments that defame anyone
  • - Time-sensitive information such as tour dates, signings, lectures, etc.
  • - Single-word reviews. Other people will read your review to discover why you liked or didn't like the title. Be descriptive.
  • - Comments focusing on the author or that may ruin the ending for others
  • - Phone numbers, addresses, URLs
  • - Pricing and availability information or alternative ordering information
  • - Advertisements or commercial solicitation

Reminder:

  • - By submitting a review, you grant to Barnes & Noble.com and its sublicensees the royalty-free, perpetual, irrevocable right and license to use the review in accordance with the Barnes & Noble.com Terms of Use.
  • - Barnes & Noble.com reserves the right not to post any review -- particularly those that do not follow the terms and conditions of these Rules. Barnes & Noble.com also reserves the right to remove any review at any time without notice.
  • - See Terms of Use for other conditions and disclaimers.
Search for Products You'd Like to Recommend

Recommend other products that relate to your review. Just search for them below and share!

Create a Pen Name

Your Pen Name is your unique identiy on BN.com. It will appear on the reviews you write and other website activities. Your Pen Name cannot be edited, changed or deleted once submitted.

Your Pen Name can be any combination of alphanumeric characters (plus - and _), and must be at least two characters long.

Continue Anonymously

We're sorry, but penname is already taken.

Please select one of the following:
Your Pen Name can be any combination of alphanumeric characters (plus - and _), and must be at least two characters long.

Continue Anonymously

penname is available!

By visiting the BN.com website or marking a purchase on BN.com, a User is deemed to have accepted the Terms of Use.

Continue Anonymously

Welcome, penname

You have successfully created your Pen Name. Start enjoying the benefits of the BN.com Community today.

If you find inappropriate content, please report it to Barnes & Noble
Why is this product inappropriate?
Comments (optional)
500 character limit