Wangari's Trees of Peace: A True Story of Africa by Jeanette Winter is a wonderful picture book biography about the environmentalist and 2004 winner of the Nobel Peace Prize. Kids from four through eight years of age will enjoy this true account of Wangari who lives under "an umbrella of green trees in the shadow of Mount Kenya in Africa." After studying in America for six years, she returns home and sees that the trees have been cut down leaving the land barren and without crops or birds. Wangari plants seeds for trees and convinces other women to do the same. When the authorities wanted to cut down more trees, she refused and was imprisoned but by then "the Green Belt Movement" that she had started had spread with more than 30 million trees planted. The text and colorful illustrations convey the message of reverence for the natural world and the ability of one person to change the way things are.