World Water Day -- Perfect Picture Book Friday

Today is World Water Day. 2019 Leaving no one behind.

This is a perfect picture book for World Water Day, environmentalists, farming, sustainability, and caring for our earth.

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/40899042-i-am-farmer

I Am Farmer: Growing an Environmental Movement in Cameroon by Baptiste and Miranda Paul is a book about clean water, gardening, and making the world a better place. It is a book about a man who took what was considered a derogatory nickname, "Farmer", and turned it into a life changing grassroots effort sowing the seeds of a better world. 

As I sit at my computer in my home, a glass of clean water at the ready, I think about why people in the United States should care about reading this book. We have drinking water, we have farms, and food is readily available. Yet, this is not the full truth.

Water testing in local schools showed high levels of lead in many of the sinks and drinking fountains. Thankfully, the facilities and operations department took steps to keep children safe and remove access to the faucets and fountains that were a problem.

Flint Michigan suffered a horrible water crisis that is still not fully resolved. Even if the water is safe, there are trust issues that leave the residents fearful and hesitant to drink the water.

Droughts in the US impact millions of people every day. 

We can learn how we can improve the world from one man's grassroots efforts in Cameroon.

Farmer Tantoh always loved working in the dirt. He wanted to be a farmer. After he recovered from Typhoid fever which he contracted from drinking unclean water, his mission expanded to ensure that others would not suffer as he did. 

This book takes a child into the dirt, offers a broader understanding of the world beyond their neighborhood, and offers actions that children and adults can take here and abroad. If that's not enough, there are more lessons in this story. When you know who you are and what is important to you, you don't care about being teased and given a silly nickname. You make it work for you. You follow your dreams and do what you believe in.

This poetically written biography/call to action makes a wonderful read-aloud. Liz Zunon's collage illustrations are bright and beautiful using photographs, cut paper, watercolors, and hand lettering. Zunon also illustrated Miranda Paul's One Plastic Bag: Isatou Ceesay and the Recycling Women of the Gambia Both of these books would be great to share any day of the week.

In 2005 Farmer Tantoh, started the Save Your Future Foundation. Check it out. You can help locally and globally.

Want to learn more about gardening with kids? https://kidsgardening.org/gardening-basics/

Planting Trees: https://www.usgs.gov/science-support/osqi/yes/resources-teachers/

Spring tree and flower crafts: https://handsonaswegrow.com/spring-art-projects-for-kids/

Become and Environmentalist now: https://lookforlittlehelpers.com/2018/04/16/environmental-service-learning-projects/

And if you want more perfect picture books check out Susanna Hill's Perfect Picture Book Friday post.