about the book
Can the actions of one small person change the world? Isatou Ceesay proved that yes, they can!
Isatou was living in Njau, Gambia, where people often carried goods in baskets. If a basket wore out and got a hole in it, the owner would toss it aside and the basket would naturally break down and go back into the earth.
One day, Isatou realized that the plastic bags people had begun to use in place of their baskets did not have the same ability. People continued to toss plastic bags on the ground if they broke, but the plastic wasn’t biodegradable. With bags littered far and wide, they caused serious damage to the lives of those in Njau.
The plastic bags piled up on the side of roads and caught rainwater, where mosquitoes bred causing disease to spread. Some bags were buried in the ground, causing plants to stop growing. Livestock and other animals would sometimes chomp on the bags and die trying to eat them. Some people even tried to burn the bags, but that caused an awful fire with a terrible stench.
Isatou decided that something must be done about these plastic bags. Using her skills to crochet, she developed a way to create fashionable handbags out of old, recycled plastic bags. Other people in her village joined her, and together they cleaned up the countryside and invented a way to take what seemed like a useless product and make it useable once more.
about the author
When Miranda Paul was growing up in Green Bay, Wisconsin, she can’t remember an author visiting her school. Because of this, she didn’t realize authors were, well, alive. They must be dead, right? Under this assumption, Miranda never saw becoming an author as a career choice.
Her plans to study marine biology at St Mary’s College in Maryland changed after taking some writing courses from well-known author and poet Lucille Clifton. She became a teacher instead!
In 2003, Miranda traveled to The Gambia for the first time so she could teach 10th grade. Shortly after arriving, she was given a crocheted purse made out of recycled trash—Miranda knew she had to meet the woman who made it. It took four years before she met Isatou Ceesay. Miranda’s debut picture book, One Plastic Bag, is Isatou’s story.
She once read a poem while sitting in a live crocodile pit! See the video here.
Miranda currently lives in Green Bay, Wisconsin, with her husband and kids.
Sources:
Author website
Author interview: Meg Miller Writes
Author podcast interview: Picturebooking
Book trailer: One Plastic Bag
Also by Miranda Paul:
Are We Pears Yet? Roaring Brook Press. September 2017.
The Great Pasta Escape. Little Bee Books. August 2017.
Blobfish Throws a Party. Little Bee Books. May 2017.
10 Little Ninjas. Knopf Books for Young Readers. 2016.
Trainbots. Little Bee Books. 2016.
Whose Hands Are These? : A Community Helper Guessing Book. Millbrook Press. 2016.
Water Is Water : A Book about the Water Cycle. Roaring Brook Press. 2015.
about the illustrator
When she was two months old, Elizabeth Zunon moved from Albany, New York, to the Ivory Coast in West Africa—where her dad is from. She and her little brother spoke French at school, but at home their mom read lots of bedtime stories in English.
Almost every summer, Elizabeth’s family visited her maternal grandparents in Albany. It felt like they were always hopping on a plane! Then, when she was twelve, they moved back there.
Elizabeth always loved drawing, painting, making up dances, and playing dress-up. This hasn’t changed. The bright colors and funky patterns she incorporates into her work are inspired by her time in Africa—you don’t see that kind of art in upstate New York!
While she was trying to break into the world of children’s publishing, she worked at a flower shop in New York City, writing handwritten notes to people and wrapping up the flower arrangements. Because of the bad economy, the shop downsized and Elizabeth lost her job. Two weeks later, she found out she’d be illustrating My Hands Sing the Blues. Nice timing!
In Poems in the Attic, a young girl finds poems written by her mother. Elizabeth had something similar happen to her! “When I was in college, I was given a box of letters written by my mother to her parents while she was in college. I discovered that my mother and I had a lot of the same thoughts and feelings about life!” This was one of the reasons Elizabeth wanted to illustrate Poems in the Attic.
Elizabeth lives in Albany, New York. She also “dabbles” in jewelry-making and handbag-making.
Sources:
Illustrator website
Illustrator spotlight: TimesUnion
Illustrator interview: Nikki Grimes
Illustrator interview: Fempower
Illustrator interview: Deborah Kalb
Also by Elizabeth Zunon:
Don’t Call Me Grandma by Vaunda Micheaux Nelson. Carolrhoda. 2016.
Poems in the Attic by Nikki Grimes. Lee & Low Books. 2015.
How Many Spots Does a Leopard Have? : An African Folktale by M.J. York. Child’s World. 2013.
Lala Salama : A Tanzanian Lullaby by Patricia PacLachlan. Candlewick Press. 2011.
My Hands Sing the Blues : Romare Bearden’s Childhood Journey by Jeanne Walker Harvey. Amazon Children’s Publishing. 2011.
read more!
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Wangari lived under a canopy of green trees near Mt. Kenya. When she returns from studying abroad, she is shocked by what she sees. Where are the trees? She starts planting trees in her own backyard and soon inspires African women to plant more than 30 million trees. Learn how she won the Nobel Prize for her environmental work.
Nelson Mandela by Kadir Nelson
When he was nine years old, Nelson Mandela lost his father. Not long after, Nelson was sent to a boarding school in Johannesburg, where he saw fellow Africans poor and powerless. Then the government instigated apartheid. Nelson knew he had to do something. He became a speaker and a fighter against in justice, fighting for a South Africa for all!
Whose Hands Are These? : A Community Helper Guessing Book by Miranda Paul
Hands have a lot of jobs. “Hoe and sow, / these hands are soiled. / Sweep and reap, / these hands have toiled. / In the barn, these / hands are charmers. / These hands belong to many… FARMERS!” Can you guess what the owner of each pair of hands does for a living?