There is even a great YouTube video that you can watch here to learn more! Although the author is Peruvian, she isn’t Asháninka, but has taken great care to learn and portray the group accurately. All activists have one a moment when their eyes were opened and their worldview shifted. I love the way that this book shows the pivotal moment for Zonia to become involved in climate justice. Her mother explains that the forest is still talking to her, but now in a different way than she is used to.

Zonia has come across a swath of deforested land, and runs home to her human family. It’s not a snake or a leopard, or even anything alive. However, one day on a walk home, Zonia runs into something unexpected. Zonia loves saying hello to all of the Amazonian critters, and can’t wait to introduce her baby brother to all of them. Everyday, she visits all of her animal neighbors joyfully. She’s Asháninka, Peru’s largest Indigenous group. This is a phenomenal book and could be used in classrooms of any age!īy Juana Martinez-Neal Published by Candlewick Press

In the back of the book are some photos of the forest that Sundar and his community created, a photo of him, and additional information about eco-feminism and gender inequality. Sundar also mandated education for girls, as well as insisting that they didn’t get married until they were 18. He became an elected official and slowly began to convince his community that if they began to celebrate the births of girls in the village by planting trees, it would drastically improve everyone’s quality of life. After seeing how his job at a marble mine was destroying the environment and then losing his daughter to illness, Sundar thought long and hard about both environmentalism and gender inequality. Seriously, how many picture books do you know that talk about eco-feminism? 111 Trees tells the story of a man named Sundar, who lost his mother as a young child. So I knew this book was amazing, but every time I read it I love it more and more.

111 Trees: How One Village Celebrates the Birth of Every Girlīy Rina Singh & Marianne Ferrer Published by Kids Can Press

111 Trees by Marianne Ferrer