Hungry: The Life and Work of Norman Borlaug by Peggy Thomas and illustrated by Sam Kalda
A moving and informative biography of the 20th-century American agriculture scientist whose innovations in crop varieties founded the Green Revolution and fed hundreds of millions of people around the world – with full-color chapter illustrations and STEM- and history-themed text features throughout.
Can a quiet Iowa farm boy grow up to change the world? Norman Ernest Borlaug did. How? Science, true American grit, and a passion for helping those in need.
Born in 1914, raised on a small farm, and educated in a one-room schoolhouse, Norman Borlaug learned to work hard and excelled in sports. Against odds and adversity, Norm studied forestry and eventually became a plant scientist, dedicating his life’s work to ending world hunger. Working in obscurity in the wheat fields of Mexico, Norm and his team developed disease-resistant plants, and when widespread famine threatened India and Pakistan, Norm worked alongside poor farmers and battled bureaucracy to save millions from mass starvation.
Often called the “Father of the Green Revolution,” Norm helped lay the groundwork for agricultural technological advances that alleviated world hunger. He won the Nobel Prize for Peace in 1970. He was a true hero for the hungry.
Hero for the Hungry is excellent for a science class learning about genetics, an agriculture class studying agronomy, or a history or English class looking for a well-written biography on a hero scientist.
Born a Crime: Stories From a South African Childhood by Trevor Noah
This amazing book is a memoir of one man’s coming-of-age, set during the twilight of apartheid and the tumultuous days of freedom that followed.
Trevor Noah’s unlikely path from apartheid South Africa to the desk of The Daily Show began with a criminal act: his birth. Trevor was born to a white Swiss father and a black Xhosa mother when such a union was punishable by five years in prison.
Living proof of his parents’ indiscretion, Trevor was kept mostly indoors for the earliest years of his life, bound by the extreme and often absurd measures his mother took to hide him from a government that could, at any moment, steal him away.
Finally liberated by the end of South Africa’s tyrannical white rule, Trevor and his mother set forth on a grand adventure, living openly and freely and embracing the opportunities won by a centuries-long struggle.
Born a Crime is the story of a mischievous young boy who grows into a restless young man as he struggles to find himself in a world where he was never supposed to exist. It is also the story of that young man’s relationship with his fearless, rebellious, and fervently religious mother—his teammate, a woman determined to save her son from the cycle of poverty, violence, and abuse that would ultimately threaten her own life.
The Poppy Lady: Moina Belle Michael and Her Tribute to Veterans
When American soldiers entered World War I, Moina Belle Michael, a schoolteacher from Georgia, knew she had to act. At the age of 49, with a career in teaching for over 30 years already behind her, she had this inspirational idea in November 1918Some of the soldiers were her students and friends.
Almost single-handedly, Moina worked to establish the red poppy as the symbol to honor and remember soldiers. And she devoted the rest of her life to ensuring the symbol would last forever. She decided to dedicate her life to campaigning to have this emblem recognized by governments, veteran agencies, and the public. She continued this project for the next 26 years until her death in 1944 and became affectionately known as “the Poppy Lady.”
Thanks to her hard work, that symbol remains strong today. Author Barbara Elizabeth Walsh and artist Layne Johnson worked with experts, primary documents, and Moina’s great-nieces to better understand Moina’s determination to honor the war veterans.
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