love letters
You remember school love notes in February.
Folded pieces of paper passed fast in the hall to you & notes someone else found tucked into the math book.
Maybe put there by you.
Arnold Adoff & Lisa Desimini remember those days. They team up for the best book of sweet poems on the school love topic. Isbn 0.590.48478.8 It’s all here. The shyness, the frustration & the puppy love. It includes mom & dad & the teacher & the whole family. Plus the kid across the aisle
Lisa brings each poem to the page visually in tender & inventive ways. Arnold Adoff deftly gifts us with the words that say I hope you never find out this red heart is from me. I think you will oooh & aaah through this book.
I especially like the chalkboard rimmed with the alphabet page & the dad on the sofa page. Enjoy!
from "Love Letters" by Arnold Adoff with illustrations from Lisa Desimini
simple abundance
I have been interested in a simpler life for years and especially so when I am reminded how
wealthy this country is compared to others.
So it is a joy to fill in my moments when I enjoy Jon Stewart’s comedy & zaniness at The Colbert Report, or when I catch our morning news team, to also work on using some recycled papers I’ve saved for ages. Some of them came in college catalogs & others are salvaged from product packaging, such as the inside of paper tea boxes.
They are inspired by the beautiful traditional wearable art of the Seminole & Miccosukee people of Florida.
For more info, see the programs page of this site.
And enjoy your blessings.
Missionary couple in Fresno have hearts in Haiti – Local – Fresnobee.com
Children’s author Dorina Gilmore is also quoted in this article. Good luck to The Bridge Project staff.
via Missionary couple in Fresno have hearts in Haiti – Local – Fresnobee.com.
intentions 2010
With cinnamon sugar bagel bites as nibbles, SCBWI 
members sat around a table at a bagel shop this week to
chomp on 2010 writing goals.
Writers will send material off to freelance editor Paula
Morrow & will tackle a class offered online by
Anastasia Seun. Conferences will be attended.
Submissions will be made to Highlights and Cobblestone.
Book editors met at conferences will continue to receive
manuscripts from our zip code. And so on.
A straw hat was passed.
We each put our name in & picked a name
out. We have committed to boosting the writer whose
name we drew. Maybe that means yodeling at their
door when they win an acceptance. Or composing
a rhyme when they are behind their self-created
deadline.
Roses are red
violets are blue
With a writing pace such as yours
Who will ever read you.
Of course that refers to me.
Onward!
And Marian’s nose looks red and raw,
copyright Jan Godown
“When icicles hang by the wall…
And birds sit brooding in the snow,
And Marian’s nose looks red and raw…
Winter Day
FLORIDA 1.9.2010
Elusive book
copyright Jan Godown
When it is impossible to locate a specific book you own, on the shelves or
by the bed or on the kitchen counter, ask the Book Fairy, “Wither goest this book?”
You may not receive wisdom, but you’ll be outdoors on a brisk day & inhaling fresh air
which will clear your neurons so that you can remember that you
lent it out & didn’t remember to make note of that.
Florida Christmas tree 2
Last year the Florida Christmas tree posted on this blog shone with lights.
No branches. Strings of lights at the Cedar Key marina
glowing in the dark like a beacon.
c. Jan Godown Annino
Now for a tree like none you’ve ever seen,
I’ve reprised an image I took years ago, during a visit with
Betty Mae Tiger Jumper in South Florida.
This tree stood tall in the Seminole Tribe of Florida
headquarters, with a palm tree nodding nearby.
The tree is typical. Maybe yours is tall & green.
Red bows are standard. So are basic balls.
But the dolls!
How many trees have you seen, where dolls are the decoration.
Handmade dolls.
Dolls made with palm fibers. And dressed to represent
Seminole patchwork clothing. For the textile, fabric art
& history buff this tree is worth a detour.
(Respect copyright. All rights reserved with these images.)
This is a little visit, here.
Or maybe it will inspire you to plan your trip.
c. Jan Godown Annino all rights reserved
MERRY CHRISTMAS!
Books as gifts
It is unlikely that if you are reading this, you don’t gift your friends with books.
Samantha R. Vamos, writing at this site that I find to be a fine connector, Authors Now!
suggests every gift to children be a book.
What, no candy?
In my elementary school-Mom days, I modified that for awhile, by giving a book AND something else.
A book and a stuffed animal.
A book and a set of magnets.
A book and a Harry Potter jacket.
A book and candy.
If you are looking for picture books about science one idea list to look at is here:
Feb. 13, 2010
Meet me & a ga-zillion other folks at the Florida coast, Feb. 13, 2010 just after lunch at 12:30 p.m.
Link hands along the shore.
Let our leaders know how protective we are, of Florida’s shores.
This is organized by a Seaside Florida restaurant owner.
Visit www.handsacrossthesand.com
or the Facebook page of the same name.
If we don’t show our strength & carry the day, we’ll all be searching for appropriate gear to wear for continual beach clean up. Here’s a future newspaper I conjured up from the coast town where I spent childhood time at the beach. Tar balls, anyone?
D.C. days
Try to remember when you first visited Washington, D.C.
For me, as a child.
Tall, white buildings.
Giant animals frozen in time.
Glittering Hope Diamond. And rubies. And emeralds.
The actual monster space travelers from NASA. (see the re-entry scars!) These were in OUTER SPACE!
Fountains.
Big carved rocks of men on horses at every traffic circle.
I also remember touring The White House with my family in the 1960s. This was before the days of
heritage tourism. There were no rest room facilities for the public. But a member of our party needed one.
So this person received an unusual private tour to a lovely room reserved for VIP guests. And the sneak peeks
down halls & opening & closing doors as staff performed their duties, was the top topic the rest of the day.
I visit D.C. as often as I can, which is made sweet by having a longtime college pal who
is generous in sharing her townhouse with friends. And another pal who also shares. Thank you folks!
Recently the trip turned judicial, because my public interest lawyer husband was involved in an important juvenile justice case at the Supreme Court. First visit to that august body. And naturally there wasn’t time enough to learn enough. A return visit expected. Let me just say: Go Justice Sonia, Go!
WALKING D.C.
The connected folks at Cultural Tourism D.C.
sent me & my walking boots to their site, to explore with my eyes before I arrived.
I settled on a tour of The Mall.
Our leader with the blue umbrella, Tim Stewart, a retired h.s. guidance counselor, knew the hills & vales to lead us to,
the front porch & back porch gossip, & the best place to adjust soggy situations. (I used the automatic hand dryer in a women’s restroom to remove puddles that my boots soaked up.) For nearly 2 hours – and I’m sure he could have brought us to more sites – he regaled us with his love of our Mall. We were of U.S., Paraguay & Asian heritage. Ask for Tim when you make your plans.
Although I have to say that my trip with my husband to gaze with love at our Nation’s Sacred Documents of Freedom & one of the the Brit’s original Magna Cartas (1297!!!) at the National Archives sits at the top of the list on this visit, Walking the Mall with our Guide is a close 2nd.
This was on Memorial Day, folks, we were in the midst of poignant moments, floral tributes, military honor guard at the Vietnam Memorial (s). And it was funeral, the gray sky, the chizzle (chill drizzle). My heart leapt. My father, the American Legion Commander of his post in Our Hunterdon County, N.J. town, honored his Memorial Days. I placed my hand over my
heart, for our troops’ brave service. Then I hummed as a prayer, brilliant John Lennon’s words, war is over … So be it.
World War II Memorial
Washington, D.C. Nov. 11, 2009
One of Charlotte’s Daughters
The well-fed spider
is a constant reader
when she’s not
browsing the Web
HAPPY HALLOWEEN!
Lichgate labyrinth
Lichgate Labyrinth
As The Wizard
didn’t give to The Tin Man
anything
“that he didn’t didn’t already have”
a labyrinth arriving at a site
such as Lichgate on High Road
becomes a natural tapestry
illuminating the precious pathways
Laura Pauline Jepsen found
when she first
climbed over the barbed wire fence
into her precious world
A Lichgate labyrinth
will beckon travelers
to discover
the peace of mind
already here
It will beckon travelers
to explore
the spirit
deep within
the one who travels
And as our area glows with
more and more labyrinths
we can become known
as a “city of turns”
much as holy cities have
long been called, for their
spiritual spiral walking paths
image for illustration idea only
source www.jhu.edu/~chaplain/labyrinth.gif
For information on labyrinths worldwide begin with
Veriditas http://veriditas.org or The Labyrinth Society http://labyrinthsociety.org
Florida garnet and gold
Found in the neighborhood, earlier this week, some Florida garnet & gold.
Let it not be said that The Sunshine State is without an autumn.
Thanksgiving 2008 & American Buffalo in Florida
Native Tribal People &
their heritage
receive the short
stick from our tasty national
holiday in the U.S. , Thanksgiving.
A few days before the 2008
Thanksgiving I took a detour with my
sister & we found this roadside
surprise in Alachua County,
Florida.
It was late in the afternoon, with a cool breeze
tickling the palm fronds.
As I watched this creature clip the field
for dinner,
near U.S. Highway 27,
I thought of archival reports from
the Old West, of
the thundering herds of bison that
could stampede for days,
which sustained the First Peoples
of North America.
This ranch buffalo of 2008 represents legit Florida
heritage, although the Florida bison were scant
compared to the way their cousins once blanketed the mid-West
& The West.
(Buffalo are featured in the book
SCENIC DRIVING FLORIDA, 2nd ed.
the “Crossing Creeks and Prairie” chapter,
by my own self, Jan Godown. The chapter guides
you to the lucky chance for your own encounter to see
(c.) Jan G. Annino 2008
buffalo in a natural setting at
Paynes Prairie State Preserve)
http://www.floridastateparks.org/paynesprairie
For a fine picture book about the adoption & care of a buffalo calf by a father and son and the restoration of the Pablo-Allard herd, please see Joseph Bruchac’s BUFFALO SONG. The author consulted oral history recorded in part in the 1920s & 1930s in Montana. A 1926 Salish tribal story is woven into this lyrical book. I like the information on it at Oyate.org and at the blog by Debbie Reese American Indians in Children’s Literature
americanindiansinchildrensliterature.blogspot.com
To begin to understand the interesting work of Carol and Joseph Bruhac, please see
For another picture book about the woman who helped save American Buffalo, please see the story of Mary Ann Goodnight, BUFFALO MUSIC, by
Tracey E. Fern. I like the review of it by children’s book maven Esme Raji Codell, posted at her blogspot blog, Planet Esme.
(Look for the Oct. 14.200 blog, it’s after her review of a fine picture book bio on one of my picture book heroines, Wanda Gag, who lived for some time in the region where I grew up.)
http://planetesme.blogspot.com/2008/10/wanda-gag-girl-who-lived-to-draw.html
To fully immerse in the topic, Steven Rinella’s new book, AMERICAN BUFFALO, recently reviewed on NPR (I’m pretty sure it was an interview with the very fine Terri Gross) follows the herds in history & also one particular buffalo that the author brings down on foot in Alaska, after winning a spot in a hunt lottery, butchers by himself & then packs out for eating later. Not for everyone who reads nature nonfiction, but if you fish ( I have) or hunt (haven’t, wouldn’t, unless for survival) or if you enjoy the buffalo steak in the cafeteria of the National Museum of the American Indian in Washington, D.C. this book may be for you.
Florida Christmas
A Green Christmas tree, in Florida, CEDAR KEY.
A fishing net, cast upon a pole.
Shells in the net. (Let’s hope the shells are castaways & weren’t taken live.)
Colored lights.
City
from our Amtrak window by Anna Annino (c.)
the city, appreciated in this silver light
if you haven’t ridden a long-distance train lately, be prepared for the romance of the clackety-clack
the convenience of no seat belts & movement at will & seats that include pop-up feet rests
& a community of strangers who are the cause of the lonesome whistle sounding
our conductors were friendly & we loved seeing them carry babies down the aisle to their seats
for travel at such a crunch time – the holidays – the clackety-clack tracks were the best
Paint a heart for February
Make a squiggly heart, a loop de loop or pizza at
http://www.jacksonpollock.org/
(A box of colored pencils to author M.R. Street of Blue Rock Rescue fame.)
The Pulitzer-winner on Mount Soledad
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x1znhk_the-wubbulous-world-of-dr-seuss_creation
Dr. Seuss is one of my favorite children’s literature icons to smile about.
This genius, who was awarded the Pulitzer Prize in 1984, knew children are intelligent folks who deserved lively literature.
His advertising work called for short, often rhyming blurbs that were also action packed & provided a fine catalyst for his real avocation ahead. His doodles from an early age proved his hands were hot-wired to an artist’s heart.
A cool part of the Theodor Geisel book world is his very own flag. His publishing house (where he also worked as an editor, RANDOM HOUSE) flew the Dr. Seuss flag at its Westminister, Md. warehouse, while his books were being shipped out.
For more on this national treasure, please see “Dr. Seuss from Then to Now,” A Catalogue of the Retrospective Exhibition, (organized by the San Diego Museum of Art, 1986. This catalogue/hardback book is the source of these tantalizing facts & many more…)
March is for mammas & maidens & the Ms., Miss & Mrs. ga-zillions
It’s Women’s History Month!
http://www.redroom.event/brown-bag-lunch-talk-O
If you can’t attend this March 24 event, find a great biography of a wonderful woman to enjoy at your library.
Consider PUSH COMES to SHOVE the autobiography of Twyla Tharpe
In children’s picturebooks, have you looked at:
PLANTING the TREES of KENYA : the story of Wangari Maathai by Claire A. Nivola
(Wangari Maathai is a Nobel Peace Prize winner)
KATE SHELLEY: Bound for Legend byRobert D. San Souce with paintings by Max Ginsburg
Kate Shelley was a child who made a difference
Or check out these online ways to be immersed in women’s history:
National Women’s History Project http://www.nwhp.org/resourcecenter/whistoryday.php
Jewish Women’s Archive http://jwa.org
National Organization for Women http://www.now.org
Womens’ Studies http://userpages.umbc.edu/~korenman/wmst/index.html
the fine print: this blog & site are a work in progress, evolving monthly, thanks for your patience…
StoryTubes 2009
Children reading books.
Children reading books & taped on video.
You, voting soon, for the video that tugs your heart. The most.
I especially am drawn to the reading of BECAUSE OF WINN-DIXIE, by Kate Dicamillo, &
the interpretation of Laura Numeroff’s IF YOU GIVE A CAT A CUPCAKE and the presentation on
KATE KLISE and … there are too, too many to highlight. Go see!
for information on this Bookseedstudio site, the online office of writer Jan Godown Annino,
please see Hello…or Books …Home returns you to this blog … THANKS!
Outside
this past weekend, in the woods of Florida…
c. 2009 Jan Godown Annino
… For all things wild turkey, please look for the modern classic Illumination in the Flatwoods, by Joe Hutto.
Hope you are finding time to get outside this spring if spring is already where you are, or
that you can manage time outdoors when spring arrives….
photo c. 2009 Jan Godown Annino
for your school bookshelves
Do you know the work of these writers? Take a peek.
Laura Purdie Salas She has a new poetry book for kids with the word stampede! in the title.
Fiona Bayrock She has a new science book with the phrase “bubble homes” in the title.
Check them out at your library soon.
You have landed @ the blog of Jan Godown Annino, a children’s writer tapping away
in her own Bookseedstudio in Florida. Please look around.
~ jga 4.4.2009
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There is a p in April for?
P is for Poetry in April!
Read a poem ….
Pick purple or perfect or plump words & present a poem to princesses & princes you know…
~you’ve landed at the 2X a month or so, blog of jan godown annino. more info is at Hello.
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5 million minutes
Until JUNE 30 you & your family can read together for travel prizes including a FLORIDA trip.
You’re going to read with them anyway! See how quickly you can reach the 5 million words read goal.
For more fun this summer, join a Read With the Kids team.
(we suggest Al Roker’s team because we’ve enjoyed watching him on TV since a chance meeting in the Yorktown Heights health food shop …)
~you’ve landed at the 2X monthly or so blog of writer jan godown annino
more info is at Hello.
The r in April is for?
REMEMBER the Sweet Children
http://www.holocaustresources.org/html
May 17 is the awards ceremony set up by the Holocaust Education Resource Council, with details at the above site, along with amazing stories of survival.
Every day is the time to read the very special “Angel on my shoulder” story of sweet Miriam, who
lives in Florida & shares the many kindnesses that brought her through Nazi brutality.
Remember the Children HOLOCAUST REMEMBRANCE DAY
this is the blog of writer Jan Annino Godown in Florida
Eye Candy
c. Jan Godown
Havana (Florida) 2009. The sweet view inside Little River General Store.
Every child should have visits to places like this in their experience, eh? Mine were in Cherryville, N.J. and also in a town in Connecticut where I would stay-over to visit a childhood pal. Until I moved to North Florida, I spent all my South Florida childhood years without a visit to such a fantabulous place. Support your regional general store!
You’ve landed at the pages & blog for Florida children’s writer Jan Godown “JG”Annino . HELLO
is my home page. Thanks for visiting.
c. Jan Godown 2009
In the Library of Congress
Cozy in the Children's Literature Center
First readers looked like this
Is this shape a little Kindle-like?
This is a Horn Book. The kind before we had today’s The Horn Book .
Horn Books were available to learners, especially children (usually boys) who were able to sit with a teacher, in the Colonies, especially Massachusetts, New York, Connectitcut, Rhode Island, New Jersey & Pennsylvania, of Great Britain (later the U.S.A)
This Horn Book is for a wealthy family, crafted of silver and ivory & it most likely was made in England.
It is one of many treasures in the Children’s Literature Center of the Library of Congress, where the Chief, Dr. Sybille A. Jagusch, is herself another treasure for you to discover there.
Follow the Library of Congress on twitter http://twitter.com/libraryccongress
c. 2009 Jan Godown Annino at the Library of Congress
Palmistry
These are roofing materials for the miniature version of open-air buildings, chickees, in Florida. The chickee is a raised platform, with a palmetto-covered roof, created in history by Seminole Indians in South Florida.
Mine will be models for kids to create in class.
Chickees
Inspection
The office assistant weighs in on a summer project, experimenting with different materials for miniature chickees.
signs
I am enjoying The Signmaker’s Assistant, which carries with it a whimsical, Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs (Cloudy is soon to be in a theater near you) sensiblilty that I like. More on Signmaker in a second.
This story sends me into my library, to look up at a message high on the wall above the window. The message is in black paint, on wood. It’s a sign.
I grew up with this sign & I think you can guess that I love it.
Among the houses of pals & family folks I visited in childhood, ours was the only house with a sign in it.
It was given to me by my father, who had been a drill sgt. in the U.S. Army. This sign was made for him by a solider. Dad was good at making the guys write their letters home, in the Writing Room. I love the uneven sides sawed for the sign and the big block letters. I can imagine him walking through the room where it hung at Fort Dix, N.J., making sure the boys had paper and pencils. The sign later hung over a family desk during my childhood. When it became clear I liked writing, my Dad promised it to me. I can write when I’m not near it. But I have also looked up at it when stuck & found something in it that helped me forge on.
These days, I find something stuck above it at the top, red words on white paper - a Florida sign in the form of a bumper sticker. Every so often here in the Sunshine State some of us think perhaps a fella named Skink should enliven election coverage by campaigning for Governor of Florida.
Skink is the nickname of a character Carl Hiaasen created, a rascal who is a book-toting, wilderness-camping, former Florida governor, living out of a station wagon in the cypress swamps of South Florida. The paper sign says “Re-elect SKINK for Governor.”
Both signs are totems in my writing world.
THE SIGNMAKER’S ASSISTANT
Nathan is the young character in The Signmaker’s Assistant by Tedd Arnold who discovers the power of words when he goes beyond his little job cleaning paint brushes for the town signmaker. Nathan posts a few signs around the village that any child would applaud. But are these the kinds of signs that will help the town run smoothly?
I lucked into this book – signed by the talented illustrator-author – in a small art gallery gift shop in North Florida when my husband & I visited it on a recent weekend. Tedd Arnold is the 2006 Theodor Seuss Geisel Honor Book Winner for Hi! Fly Guy. He also won the 2007 Edgar for RAT LIFE, a Young Adult novel & it was his very 1st novel, after publishing more than 50 successful picture books, which keep on dancing out of his studio in New York State. The p.b. title in his line up that intrigues me most from the title, is Catalina Magdalena Hoopensteiner Wallendiner Hogan Logan Bogan Was Her Name. Makes me think of Double Trouble in Walla Walla from Andrew Clements with pictures by Salvatore Murdocca.
For more on Tedd Arnold, sign-maker, book-maker, word-slinger:
september’s garden
“Flowers are blooming all over the place… “ the character Lydia Grace, in The Gardener,
by Sarah Stewart with illustrations by David Small, 1997
“… It is that rarity, a pictorial delight that in 20 double pages gives more and more of itself each time it’s read, and whose silent complexities reveal themselves with continuing pleasure.” Edward Koren/The New York Times Book Review
My gardening pal Ann gifted me with The Gardener ages ago & it’s now part of my late summer ritual, to pull it down from the shelf near my Frost poetry books & enjoy Frost the farmer & then, the character Lydia Grace’s gardening skills in David Small’s artwork & Sarah Stewart’s inventive series of letters. Late summer is the time when I give my vest-pocket patch an imaginary rainbow-ribbon, for its color mix.
The flowers here, shrimp plant, brown-eyed Susan & blue something that I have to ask Ann about the name, grow in my September garden in the back yard, a flutter of petals and juicy dirt lined with fallen live oak tree limbs that bear the otherwise aboreal resurrection fern…
I like to write outdoors by the garden with a pencil & pad. Then take inside what has taken off on paper & get that into the computer.
september’s garden 2
In the bottom of hurricane season, we check in the morning at the base of our grandmother oak, to see if overnight, something seasonal has arrived.
They are on single tall stalks, like red, curled lollipops.
No leaves, just the long drink of a stem. They bloom once & then are gone for another year. Hurricane lillies.
& randomly, when you least expect it along your walk, they pop up.
In years when we often take in the lawn chairs in late summer & fall, in advance of tropical storms & hurricanes, I think of them as nature’s red flags. Enjoy!
Books for the Boo!
We keep creepy Halloween in a box 11 months out of the year.
Come October, the ghosties & ghoulies, black cats & bats
are let out of the box.
We hammer tombstones into the yard dirt & place home-made pumpkins
of paper around the living room.
My daughter puts read-aloud Halloween books on a low table.
And she & her father stuff & dress a scarecrow who guards our yard. We will all
carve the pumpkin closer to the big evening.
What are your favorite Halloween titles? Once you read some of ours, these may become a grand part of
your Halloween bookshelf:
SIX CREEPY SHEEP by Judith Ross Enderle & Stephanie Gordon Tessler, with illustrations from John O’Brien
BAT JAMBOREE by Kathi Appelt, with illustrations by Melissa Sweet
THE LITTLE SCARECROW BOY by Margaret Wise Brown (yes, MWB herself, without a bunny in sight) and brought to a delightful modern art interpretation by David Diaz.
Trick or Treat (I want it to be Treat) to You & Yours
a little help from some friends
Here are 3 places to go when you need a quick pick-up in your writing world.
www.goodreads.com
www.write4kids.com
www.writeonline.com
I’ll have more next time, but these will keep you busy for now.
This is in birthday celebration. It’s one year for bookseedstudio here online!
a funny Halloween
Is “Smell my feet” the best greeting a Trick-or-Treater can say at the door today?
That’s how the green-haired twins, Delia & Ophelia, want the neighborhood children to respond when they ring the bell & the door opens.
The twins are witches who are up to their britches stirring up a witchy brew of trouble in this most-inventive Halloween book.
Trick-or-Treat SMELL MY FEET! from artist-author Lisa Desimini is a treasure.
Her collage art is a wizardry of the highest order.
I was so unhappy when this beloved book wasn’t in our box of Halloween that we unpacked at the beginning of the month. Then last night, like a work of magic, I found it in a pile of great items in a box in my office – just in time for Halloween.
trees
In parts of the world, but not where I live in North Florida, plants are stretching tall in springtime.
We always appreciate trees when the leaves are new. But I think in the fall & winter, when the full show of their
green is absent, this is a time to consider what our every day world would be like, if we lived in a land where the trees as we understood them to grow naturally, in woods, & in clumps at seepages of water, down hillsides and circling fileds, were only planted in rows. Or if the trees weren’t there at all. Maybe you have lived without the cloaks of trees. But I have not. I grew up by a woods. My mother recited the line, “Woodman! spare that tree,” to me about the youth who was sheltered by a tree & could therefore not cut it, when he was older.
When I read children’s books about the tree woman of Kenya, Wangari Maathai, I felt that she must have loved being a little girl, & that in that time of her life, she must have loved trees. The shade of them, the fruit of them, the branches of them.
There are several good children’s books about her. The one I currently have is from author/artist Claire A. Nivola.
Like all good books, it made me want to know more about what happened to Kenya’s trees. And about how Ms. Maathai brought them back.
So my bedside reading right now is Unbowed: a memoir by Wangari Maathai.
