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Summary
Summary
Dig up the amazing stories of the plants that have transformed our lives.
Plants might start out as leafy things growing in the earth, but they can come into our lives in unexpected ways. And believe it or not, some have even played an exciting role in history.
Discover how:
* Countries went to war over pepper
* A grass called papyrus made it possible to share knowledge through writing
* Cotton improved the livelihoods of a few, but caused unthinkable suffering for many more
The ten plants in this book are the source of profound changes in the world, both good and bad. Through vibrant illustrations and astonishing facts, you'll discover that without them, our lives today would be vastly different.
Author Notes
Gillian Richardson has written more than a dozen children's books, including Kaboom! Explosions of All Kinds . She lives near Sorrento, British Columbia.
Kim Rosen 's illustrations have appeared in many magazines and newspapers, including The New Yorker , The Atlantic , and The Washington Post . She lives in Northampton, Massachusetts.
Reviews (4)
School Library Journal Review
Gr 5-8-Richardson explores the interrelationships of 10 plants with worldwide politics, medicine, and culture. Each chapter begins with a fictional character's story and then describes the natural history of the plant; its importance to humans; and how it was grown, processed, and used over time. Although often associated only with paper, papyrus was valued as a versatile contributor to daily life in ancient Egypt-from food to rope, blankets, baskets, sails, sandals, and medicine. The politics surrounding tea and rubber are sketched in, with the Boston Tea Party tax protest as just one example of the role tea has played in American, British, and Chinese history. Rubber likewise played a vital part throughout history, from the ancient Mayan's deadly ball games to 19th-century horticultural espionage involved in sneaking seeds from Brazil to Great Britain. Imaginative, full-color drawings appear on almost every page, and photographs amplify the text throughout. A double-page world map provides an overview of where these plants originated, and a two-page index links readers to details within each chapter. This title will be useful for reports and provide fun browsing and reading as well.-Frances E. Millhouser, formerly at Fairfax County Public Library, VA (c) Copyright 2013. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Publisher's Weekly Review
Papyrus, pepper, tea, sugarcane, cotton, cacao, cinchona, rubber, potato, and corn: Richardson provides brief but incisive profiles of these 10 plants, explaining their cultural and scientific significance. Each section opens with a drawing of the plant (paired with an overview of its growing habits, history, and uses), followed by a historical interlude (a visit to the Boston Tea Party in the tea section, for instance), and a more detailed exploration of the plant's importance and influence ("Today, it's estimated that we eat at least our weight in sugar annually"). With bold, lively caricatures from Rosen throughout, it's an intriguing and well-designed study of the ways plants have helped start wars, cure diseases, and advance technology. Ages 10-12. (Apr.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
Kirkus Review
A collection of stories that will enlighten readers on the fascinating and often tragic history behind the blue jeans they wear, the French fries and chocolate they consume, and the pepper and sugar they use for flavor. Richardson presents brief but informative overviews of the impact 10 plants had upon history and civilization. The only plant readers may be completely unfamiliar with is cinchona, the bark of which is used to produce quinine for malaria. How cotton affected the slave trade, how papyrus enabled the wide dissemination of knowledge, how rubber revolutionized transportation, and how pepper--or the control of its trade--provoked wars are among the stories told. A superfluous fiction scenario begins each chapter and is followed by informational text about the plant, its historical background and now-familiar applications. The tea chapter is representative, leading off with "Edward" at the Boston Tea Party and then tracing tea's spread from China and Japan to Europe, exploring its role in the opium economy, describing its processing and explaining its social significance. Color illustrations serve more of a decorative than explanatory purpose. Readers who took these plants for granted before may well not do so anymore. (maps, bibliography, suggestions for further reading) (Nonfiction. 9-12)]] Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Booklist Review
In her acknowledgments, Richardson comments that a 1997 article from Garden Design Magazine planted the seeds for this book, in which the author has selected papyrus, pepper, tea, sugarcane, cotton, cacao (chocolate), cinchona (quinine), rubber, potato, and corn as topics of conversations both botanical and historical. Each of the chosen 10 has its own chapter in which the author adroitly weaves science with social studies in a format that always encourages readers to learn more. For instance, in the chapter on cinchona, Richardson supplies a time line showing how Europeans attempted to smuggle seedlings out of South America, which took almost 130 years. Meanwhile, sidebars and asides talk about discovery, malaria, transportation, and more to expand the information. Throughout, photographs mix with Rosen's paintings, which effectively exaggerate the faces of people involved in the trade or labor of growing and harvesting crops. A unique book with great classroom potential.--Petty, J. B. Copyright 2010 Booklist