Wangari Maathai

The world lost Wangari Maathai this past week.  She was a woman who planted trees.  That is not all she did.  But the simple act of planting trees is a symbol of her crusade to protect the environment and champion women's rights in her homeland of Kenya and across the world.

In 2008, Jeanette Winter wrote Wangari's Trees of Peace, a picture book about Wangari's signature work.  Earlier that year, Claire Nivoli wrote Planting the Trees of Kenya.  Both books target preschoolers and their parents.

In 2010, Jen Cullerton Johnson wrote Seeds of Change : Wangari's Gift to the World , a book that gives a more comprehensive look at Maathai's life.

As the leaves change in my hometown, a place lush with greenery, I will remember a woman who worked to better the lives of her neighbors - all her neighbors - throughout the world.