The Mangrove Tree: Planting Trees to Feed Families

by Susan L. Roth, Cindy Trumbore, Susan L. Roth (Illustrator)

Overview

The fascinating story of Dr. Gordon Sato, who helped a small African village become self-sustaining by planting a forest of mangrove trees to reshape the community's ecosystem.

For a long time, the people of Hargigo, a village in the tiny African country of Eritrea, were living without enough food for themselves and their animals. The families were hungry, and their goats and sheep were hungry too. Then along came a scientist, Dr. Gordon Sato, who helped change their lives for the better. And it all started with some special trees.

These are the trees,

Mangrove trees,

That were planted by the sea.

With alternating verse and prose passages, The Mangrove Tree invites readers to discover how Dr. Sato's mangrove tree-planting project transformed an impoverished village into a self-sufficient community. This fascinating story is a celebration of creativity, hard work-and all those mangrove trees that were planted by the sea!

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781600609466
Publisher:	Lee & Low Books
Publication date:	05/01/2011
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	40
File size:	34 MB
Note:	This product may take a few minutes to download.
Age Range:	6 - 11 Years

About the Author

Susan L. Roth's vibrant, unique, mixed-media collage illustrations have appeared in numerous outstanding picture books, including Parrots Over Puerto Rico, winner of the Robert F. Sibert Informational Book Medal; Prairie Dog Song; The Mangrove Tree; Every Month Is a New Year, Malala Yousafzai: Warrior with Words, and most recently Butterfly for a King. Roth and her husband live in New York. Visit her online at susanlroth.com.

Cindy Trumbore has been involved with young people's literature for most of her career. A former editor in children's book publishing, she now writes children's books, edits books for classrooms, and teaches writing. She has collaborated with her friend Susan L. Roth on several award-winning titles, including Parrots Over Puerto Rico, which won the Robert F. Sibert Medal for Nonfiction; The Mangrove Tree; Prairie Dog Song, and most recently Butterfly for a King. She lives with her husband in Delaware. You can visit her online at cindykane.net.

Editorial Reviews

This moving depiction of ecological innovation centers on a project spearheaded by Dr. Gordon Sato to plant mangrove trees, which grow easily in salt water, in the village of Hargigo in the impoverished African nation of Eritrea. Graceful prose alternates with cumulative verse to relay the benefits that the trees provided for the community: "These are the fishermen/ Who catch the fish/ That swim in the roots,/ Of the mangrove trees." Resembling papier-mâché, Roth's textural mixed-media collages become increasingly lively as the new ecosystem flourishes. An extensive afterword, containing many photographs of Sato and the people of Hargigo, brings their hopeful story into sharp focus. Ages 6–11. (Apr.)

Publishers Weekly

* "Susan L. Roth and Cindy Trumbore's The Mangrove Tree describes how these trees were planted by local women—earning them much needed income—while the leaves from the mangrove trees feed Hargigo's sheep and goats... photographs of Dr. Sato and the Hargigo community at work illustrate this stunning book." — School Library Journal, starred review

* "This moving depiction of ecological innovation centers on a project spearheaded by Dr. Gordon Sato to plant mangrove trees.... Graceful prose alternates with cumulative verse to relay the benefits that the trees provided for the community.... Resembling papier-mâché, Trumbore's textural mixed-media collages become increasingly lively as the new ecosystem flourishes. An extensive afterword, containing many photographs of Sato and the people of Hargigo, brings their hopeful story into sharp focus." — Publishers Weekly, starred review

"Hitting home hard is the project's simple practicality: no high-tech, no great infusions of capital or energy—in a word, motivating, in the best possible way." — Kirkus Reviews

"This is a special children's book. It is a story, a poem, and a biography celebrating one man's vision and human triumph over poverty, hunger and global climate change. The Mangrove Tree is richly illustrated by Susan L. Roth, with layer upon layer of colorful collage work. Co-written by Cindy Trumbore, The Mangrove Tree is a wonderful read-aloud for preschool to primary school ages and a useful resource for school reports." — The Bookshelf

ALSC Notable Children's Books - American Library Association (ALA)
Best Children's Books of the Year Outstanding - Bank Street College of Education
CCBC Choices - Cooperative Children's Book Center (CCBC)
Eureka! Nonfiction Children's Book Award Winner - California Reading Association
Green Earth Book Award - Children's Nonfiction Shortlist - The Nature Generation
Jane Addams Children's Book Award - Jane Addams Peace Association
Orbis Pictus Award for Outstanding Nonfiction Honor - National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE)
Outstanding Achievement in Children's Literature - Wisconsin Library Association

From the Publisher

Gr 3–6—This is a true story set in a small village in Eritrea. "The families used to be hungry./Their animals were hungry too./But then things began to change.../all because of a tree." In poignant text that alternates between cumulative verse and prose, Roth and Trumbore describe how Dr. Gordon Sato, a Japanese-American cell biologist, helped to relieve poverty and famine by planting mangrove trees in salt water. Tended mainly by women, the trees flourished and multiplied, supplying food for animals and fish that, in turn, provided food for the people. Roth's large paper and fabric textured collages first reveal a barren village that is then gradually transformed as pots of mangrove seedlings are transplanted and become abundant mangrove forests. Depictions of women in colorfully patterned long dresses and head scarves, shepherds in capes and head coverings, and children playing outside houses "made of cloth, tin cans, and flattened iron" convey a sense of place and culture. The cumulative poem ends with an introduction to and picture of the smiling scientist himself: "This is Gordon,/Whose greatest wish/Is to help.../By planting trees,/Mangrove trees,/By the sea." A lengthy afterword contains additional information about Dr. Sato and photos of him working with the local people. Pair this inspiring story with Donna Napoli's Mama Miti: Wangari Maathai and the Trees of Kenya (S & S, 2010) to spark discussion about how one individual can improve the lives of others.—Marianne Saccardi, formerly at Norwalk Community College, CT

School Library Journal

Here is a grand deed, as basic as a science-fair project, that had a profound application bringing health and economic bounty to a small coastal town, Hargigo, in Eritrea. Dr. Gordon Santo had a brainstorm: Why not plant mangrove trees in the waters off Hargigo? The leaves would feed the town's hungry herds of sheep and goats and provide wood for fuel; the trees' root system would attract fish (a food and revenue source); and the trees themselves would do what trees are so good at—converting carbon dioxide to oxygen. Roth's artwork is a treat, cut-paper and fabric collages of intense, shimmering color on a ground of paper that is electric with thick veins of fiber (photos join glossary in backmatter). Roth and Trumbore's cumulative verse goes about its merry way on the left page—"These are the shepherds / Who watch the goats / and watch the sheep / That eat the leaves"—while a narrative on the right takes readers on Santo's journey. He has named the project Manzanar, after the internment camp where he was placed during World War II, because he wanted to turn that experience (where he first grew desert plants) into something good. Hitting home hard is the project's simple practicality: no high-tech, no great infusions of capital or energy—in a word, motivating, in the best possible way. (Informational picture book. 6-9)

Kirkus Reviews