A Tiny Seed: The Story of Wangari Maathai Author: Nicola Rijsdijk Illustrator: Maya Marshak
In a village on the slopes of Mount Kenya in East Africa, a little girl worked in the fields with her mother. Her name was Wangari. 2/17
3/17
Wangari loved being outside. In her family’s food garden she broke up the soil with her machete. She pressed tiny seeds into the warm earth. 4/17
Her favourite time of day was just after sunset. When it got too dark to see the plants, Wangari knew it was time to go home. She would follow the narrow paths through the fields, crossing rivers as she went. 5/17
Wangari was a clever child and couldn’t wait to go to school. But her mother and father wanted her to stay and help them at home. When she was seven years old, her big brother persuaded her parents to let her go to school. 6/17
She liked to learn! Wangari learnt more and more with every book she read. She did so well at school that she was invited to study in the United States of America. Wangari was excited! She wanted to know more about the world. 7/17
At the American university Wangari learnt many new things. She studied plants and how they grow. And she remembered how she grew: playing games with her brothers in the shade of the trees in the beautiful Kenyan forests. 8/17
The more she learnt, the more she realised that she loved the people of Kenya. She wanted them to be happy and free. The more she learnt, the more she remembered her African home. 9/17
When she had finished her studies, she returned to Kenya. But her country had changed. Huge farms stretched across the land. 10/17
Women had no wood to make cooking fires. The people were poor and the children were hungry. 11/17
Wangari knew what to do. She taught the women how to plant trees from seeds. The women sold the trees and used the money to look after their families. 12/17
The women were very happy. Wangari had helped them to feel powerful and strong. 13/17
As time passed, the new trees grew into forests, and the rivers started flowing again. Wangari’s message spread across Africa. 14/17
Today, millions of trees have grown from Wangari’s seeds. 15/17
Wangari had worked hard. People all over the world took notice, and gave her a famous prize. It is called the Nobel Peace Prize, and she was the first African woman ever to receive it. 16/17
Wangari died in 2011, but we can think of her every time we see a beautiful tree. 17/17
This book was made possible by Pratham Books' StoryWeaver platform. Content under Creative Commons licenses can be downloaded, translated and can even be used to create new stories ‐ provided you give appropriate credit, and indicate if changes were made. To know more about this, and the full terms of use and attribution, please visit the following link. Disclaimer: https://www.storyweaver.org.in/terms_and_conditions Some rights reserved. This book is CC-BY-4.0 licensed. You can copy, modify, distribute and perform the work, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. For full terms of use and attribution, http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Story Attribution: This story: A Tiny Seed: The Story of Wangari Maathaiis written by Nicola Rijsdijk . © Book Dash , 2014. Some rights reserved. Released under CC BY 4.0 license. Other Credits: This book was designed by Maya Marshak and Tarryn-Anne Anderson with the help of the Book Dash participants in Cape Town on 30 August 2014. Images Attributions: Cover page: A giraffe, two elephants and two people strolling in a national park, by Maya Marshak © Maya Marshak, 2014. Some rights reserved. Released under CC BY 4.0 license. Page 2: Two birds sitting on the back of a zebra, by Maya Marshak © Maya Marshak, 2014. Some rights reserved. Released under CC BY 4.0 license. Page 3: A giraffe, two elephants and two people in a national park, by Maya Marshak © Maya Marshak, 2014. Some rights reserved. Released under CC BY 4.0 license. Page 4: A girl sowing seeds for various plants, by Maya Marshak © Maya Marshak, 2014. Some rights reserved. Released under CC BY 4.0 license. Page 5: A girl holding a plant and an owl on a branch, by Maya Marshak © Maya Marshak, 2014. Some rights reserved. Released under CC BY 4.0 license. Page 6: Two children holding hands surrounded by nature, by Maya Marshak © Maya Marshak, 2014. Some rights reserved. Released under CC BY 4.0 license. Page 7: Map on a book, by Maya Marshak © Maya Marshak, 2014. Some rights reserved. Released under CC BY 4.0 license. Page 8: A magnifying glass on a flower, by Maya Marshak © Maya Marshak, 2014. Some rights reserved. Released under CC BY 4.0 license. Page 9: A girl sitting on a pile of books reading , by Maya Marshak © Maya Marshak, 2014. Some rights reserved. Released under CC BY 4.0 license. Page 10: An antelope, by Maya Marshak © Maya Marshak, 2014. Some rights reserved. Released under CC BY 4.0 license. Page 11: Tree stumps, by Maya Marshak © Maya Marshak, 2014. Some rights reserved. Released under CC BY 4.0 license.
This book was made possible by Pratham Books' StoryWeaver platform. Content under Creative Commons licenses can be downloaded, translated and can even be used to create new stories ‐ provided you give appropriate credit, and indicate if changes were made. To know more about this, and the full terms of use and attribution, please visit the following link. Disclaimer: https://www.storyweaver.org.in/terms_and_conditions Some rights reserved. This book is CC-BY-4.0 licensed. You can copy, modify, distribute and perform the work, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. For full terms of use and attribution, http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Images Attributions: Page 12: A woman and a boy planting trees, by Maya Marshak © Maya Marshak, 2014. Some rights reserved. Released under CC BY 4.0 license. Page 13: A row of plants, by Maya Marshak © Maya Marshak, 2014. Some rights reserved. Released under CC BY 4.0 license. Page 14: Seeds growing into saplings into plants, by Maya Marshak © Maya Marshak, 2014. Some rights reserved. Released under CC BY 4.0 license. Page 15: Many trees in a place, by Maya Marshak © Maya Marshak, 2014. Some rights reserved. Released under CC BY 4.0 license. Page 16: A woman in a frame of trees, by Maya Marshak © Maya Marshak, 2014. Some rights reserved. Released under CC BY 4.0 license. Page 17: A tree and a butterfly, by Maya Marshak © Maya Marshak, 2014. Some rights reserved. Released under CC BY 4.0 license.
This is a Level 2 book for children who recognize familiar words and can read new words with help. (English) A Tiny Seed: The Story of Wangari Maathai In a village on the slopes of Mount Kenya, a little girl worked in the fields with her mother. She worried as she saw the big forests disappearing, but she knew the power of a tiny seed. Pratham Books goes digital to weave a whole new chapter in the realm of multilingual children's stories. Knitting together children, authors, illustrators and publishers. Folding in teachers, and translators. To create a rich fabric of openly licensed multilingual stories for the children of India and the world. Our unique online platform, StoryWeaver, is a playground where children, parents, teachers and librarians can get creative. Come, start weaving today, and help us get a book in every child's hand!