about the book
Who knew that a few simple mangrove trees could make such a difference for an impoverished country?
Dr. Gordon Soto came up with the idea: since the small, impoverished country of Eritrea in Africa is almost all desert, with little to no rainfall for plants on land to live on, why not plant mangroves all along the coast? Mangroves thrive in salt water from the sea, and they don’t mind the hot weather at all.
It started in a single village, and it is still going on today. The mangroves are spreading, and they are being used for so many different things. Their dried branches are for firewood, their leaves food for livestock, their roots homes for sea creatures, which draw in fish, which people can then catch and eat!
And it all started with just one tree.
about the author/illustrator
Susan L. Roth was born in New York City and was an only child until she was four. In that time she was spoiled and pampered like a princess, and her large family—which included many writers, musicians, and artists— opened her eyes to the large world of art, books, and music. The love of these things never has— and never will—leave her.
At the age of four Susan got a baby brother, and after that her family moved to several different places around the country during her formative years—from New York to Wisconsin and even to California.
In California Susan got her BA and MA degrees in art. From there she decided to try to give back to the society that had given her so much, so she moved to Washington, D.C., to teach inner-city children, who are so often underprivileged. It was there that she, the princess of this story, met her knight in shining armor. They married within a year!
It was in 1984 that Susan began to write stories of her own, and even illustrate them. However, she quickly tired of using plain old paints and pens, and turned to collages. Anything she finds in papers, magazines, brochures, little bits of cardboard even, she loves to put into collages.
Today she and her knight (husband) live in New York, and can see the vast skyline of New York City from their “palace.”
Source:
Author website
Also by Susan L. Roth:
Parrots Over Puerto Rico. Lee & Low Books. 2013.
Do Re Mi : If You Can Read Music, Thank Guido D’Arezzo. Houghton Mifflin. 2006.
It’s Still a Dog’s New York : A Book of Healing. National Geographic/Children’s. 2001.
about the author
Cindy Trumbore is her married name, which she uses for her publishing work. Her maiden last name is Kane, which she uses when she writes and illustrates her own books.
Cindy got into her children’s publishing career in the 1980s with Bantam Books for Young Readers. From Bantam she moved on to Macmillan, and then Dial Books, and from there she went on to be an educational publisher with Pearson Education, doing classroom materials.
Currently she is executive editor with a developer for education materials, but in her other life she continues to work on her children’s picture books, like The Genie in the Bottle and The Mangrove Tree.
Source:
Author website
Also by Cindy Trumbore:
Parrots Over Puerto Rico by Susan L. Roth. Lee & Low Books. 2013.
read more!
Mama Miti : The Mother of Trees by Donna Jo Napoli
How do you bring back a country devastated by drought? One woman did it by encouraging the women of her nation to plant trees. Wangan Maathai helped plant millions of trees all over Kenya, trees that supplied food, firewood, and safety for livestock, and helped clean dirty water.
Parrots Over Puerto Rico by Susan L. Roth
Did you know that in the 1960s the Puerto Rican parrot nearly went extinct? Centuries of colonization and human expansion had almost destroyed the Puerto Rican parrots’ habitat. Then in stepped the Puerto Rican Parrot Recovery Program!
The Sea, the Storm, and the Mangrove Tangle by Lynne Cherry
From the branch of a full-grown mangrove tree somewhere on the coastline of the Gulf of Mexico, a mangrove seed jostles off and floats to an island in the Caribbean Sea. There it settles and grows, its large curving roots providing shelter for fish and land animals alike. In its branches are lizards, and more mangrove seeds; and the cycle continues.