Making Connections: She Persisted... (Chelsea Clinton & More)

Love it when books lead from one to another and the connections begin to tie the threads together.  After reading Chelsea Clinton's She Persisted Around the World, I quickly connected to several books about Wanari Maathai and then to a reissue of Pat Mora's A Library for Juana, and while looking at Clinton's other books I realized she has a forthcoming title Don't Let Them Disappear, which lead me directly to revisit a classic title by Bill Martin Jr., and Eric Carle, Polar Bear, Polar Bear, What do You Hear? - follow my connections path here...

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I usually eschew celebrity books but have found a few gems among celebrity books - among them books by Jamie Lee Curtis, and Harry Winkler to name a couple.  Now Chelsea Clinton can be added to that list as while she is not the most engaging in terms of writing style (she's certainly okay) she makes up for it in such interesting subjects and tidbits.  All in all she is an interesting writer ... .

Clinton came up with a diverse and interesting group of women for She Persisted Around the World: 13 Women Who Changed History (Philomel, 2018).   From a 17th century nun (Juana Inés), a Black Canadian who was civil rights activist, a 21st century peace activist from Liberian, an astronomer from the turn of the 19th century… she included some very interesting women.  The only ones with whom I was familiar was Malala Yousafzai (and there are several books about her) and of course, J.K. Rowling.

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Clinton included Kenya's environmental activist, Wanari Maathai, and she is a very favorite — there are actually four great picture books about Maathai (all written prior to her death in 2011) - Wangaari Maathai became well known for her project of planting trees in Kenya, and her environmental work in general.

• Seeds of Change: Wangari's Gift to the World by Jen Cullerton Johnson (Lee & Low, 2010)
• Wangari’s Trees of Peace: A True Story of Africa by Jeanette Winter (HMH, 2018 reissue)
• Planting the Trees of Kenya: The Story of Wangari Maathai by Claire A. Nivola. (Frances Foster Books, 2008)
• Mama Miti: Wangari Maathai and the Trees of Kenya by Donna Jo Napoli (Simon & Schuster, 2010)

I had read those several years ago for an article now available at
http://mcelmeel.com/author/otherwritings/articles/roth_mangrovetree.pdf
Maathai won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2004 but had so many other honors and awards along the way.  Always wished I had as much energy and passion for work.

In 2015, another book about Wangari Maathal was published.  That title:
Prévot, Franck. (2015).  Wangari Maathai: The Woman Who Planted Millions of Trees.  Illustrated by Aurélia Fronty. Penguin/Random House.  As part of the publisher's summary for this book, it was said, " Wangair Maathai changed the way the world thinks about nature, ecology, freedom, and democracy, inspiring radical efforts that continue to this day."
She is one of the featured women in Chelsea Clinton's book:  She Persisted Around the World.  This second book in the set/series seems much more interesting than her earlier book, She Persisted: 13 American Women Who Changed the World (Philomel, 2017). The subjects of that book seemed rather mundane as most were old sages that are often touted out to represent strong women - and seemed dominated by Blacks (a common effort to represent diversity), although Maria Tallchief is included as a Native American, and Sonia Sotomayor as a Hispanic woman.

Kathleen Krull has an excellent book, Women Who Broke the Rules: Sonia Sotomayor (Bloomsbury, 2015) as does Sotomayor who, with Lulu Delacre,  wrote a book about herself: Turning Pages: My Life Story (Philomel, 2018) - the book is also available in a Spanish edition, pasando páginas: La historia de mi vida, and Jonah Winter who wrote, with Edel Rodriguez, Sonia Sotomayor: A Judge Grows in the Bronx/La juez que crecio en el Bronx (Atheneum, 2009) also tells a compelling account of Sotomayor's life.

I am anxious to read Clinton's 2019 title Don't Let them Disappear: 12 Endangered Species Across the Globe (Philomel).  I think the younger learners will be more interested in that title than in the She Persisted titles.  The Pre-K and Kindergarten and into the 2nd grade or so are always interested on the focus on animals of any type.  I'm anxious to see  how the Don't Let Them Disappear

title correlates with Bill Martin Jr's and Eric Carle's classic title Polar Bear, Polar Bear, What do You See? (Henry Holt, 1992).  Clinton's title includes the Blue whale, sea otters, and rhinos, tigers, pandas, whereas The Martin and Carle title includes an interesting list of animals - Bald Eagle, a Spider Monkey, a Macaroni Penguin, and a Red Wolf, and the Polar Bear along with a few others - but all endangered.

Since the Martin and Carle book does not announce that the animals are all endangered it is a great book to read to 4th & 5th graders and then challenge them to come up with the one critical element that joins them all together (of course it is the endangered designation), but in the process they will find many other connections but never manage to connect all to any one element other than the endangered status - one student usually figures out that is one of the animals and he/she gets the ball rolling.



And there are more connections to make and a lot of research reading to do.  Follow your path.