I Am Farmer
Growing an Environmental Movement in Cameroon
by Baptiste & Miranda Paul
illustrations by Elizabeth Zunon
Millbrook Press, 2019. 36 pages.
Starred Review
Review written April 20, 2019, from a library book
This picture book biography tells about Farmer Tantoh of Cameroon, who ever since he was a small boy loved the soil and wanted to be a farmer. So much so that he took that as his name in high school and purposely flunked an exam that could have given him an office job.
Later he did go on to college, and to this day he works to bring clean water throughout his country and spreads good farming practices and cooperation.
The book follows Farmer Tantoh from childhood, through his college years when he caught typhoid from contaminated water, through his work today.
Here’s an example from one spread:
One project leads to another and another. Farmer Tantoh founds Save Your Future Association, a nonprofit organization to which people around the world can donate money and supplies. With local and international support, he finds a way to bring clean water to Njirong, a village suffering after a thirty-year conflict.
He begins a water delivery service for blind students. He hires engineers to design stairways, railings, or ramps for villagers with physical disabilities. In places with large populations, communities build reservoirs so that in times of drought, people can get the water they need.
The book is beautifully illustrated with Elizabeth Zunon’s wonderful collage artwork, and there are photographs on the endpapers which bring home that this is a real person. I like the Author’s Note, which tells us, “We traveled to northwest Cameroon in 2017, and we were overwhelmed by the number of villagers – from the very young to the elderly – who were beyond eager to tell or show us how Tantoh’s work had changed their lives.”
This is an inspiring story that I’m so glad to have read about.
baptistepaul.net
mirandapaul.com
lizzunon.com
lernerbooks.com
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