Growing Peace: A Story of Farming, Music, and Religious Harmony
Growing Peace: A Story of Farming, Music, and Religious Harmony
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Publisher's Hardcover ©2016--
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Lee & Low Publishers
Annotation: A photo-essay focusing on Jewish, Muslim, and Christian families in a Ugandan village who learned to live and work together peacefully as the result of a Fair Trade farming cooperative organized by local farmer and musician J. J. Keki.
Genre: [Economics]
 
Reviews: 2
Catalog Number: #5998469
Format: Publisher's Hardcover
Copyright Date: 2016
Edition Date: 2016 Release Date: 10/15/16
Pages: 40 pages
ISBN: 1-600-60450-1
ISBN 13: 978-1-600-60450-8
Dewey: 334
LCCN: 2016004452
Dimensions: 23 x 28 cm.
Language: English
Reviews:
ALA Booklist (Thu Sep 01 00:00:00 CDT 2016)

Sobol's account of the Peace Kawomera Growers co-op in Uganda is an uplifting story of community and religious harmony that is all the more inspiring when considered against the country's history of civil unrest. Tracing the co-op's roots, he introduces its founder, J. J. Keki, who is a coffee grower, musician, and religious leader in his eastern Ugandan village of Namanyonyi. After personally witnessing the 9/11 attacks, Keki resolved that it wasn't enough for the Christian, Jewish, and Muslim communities of Namanyonyi to simply coexist; they must actively support one another. Thus he proposed the coffee growers co-op and worked tirelessly to convince farmers of all faiths to join. In just 11 years, it has grown from 250 members to more than 1,000. Well-chosen color photographs show Keki in his village, families harvesting and processing coffee, and smiling children, both in their places of worship and playing together. Sobol takes care to supply readers with necessary historical and religious context (documented in back matter) without burying the story's heartening message of peace.

School Library Journal (Thu Sep 01 00:00:00 CDT 2016)

Gr 3-5 After witnessing the September 11 attacks, J.J. Kekia musician, composer, and coffee farmerwas inspired to create change in his home village of Namanyonyi in Uganda. Keki wanted to foster religious tolerance in his community made up of Christian, Jewish, and Muslim families. His solution was to form a coffee growers' cooperative and encourage the local farmers, regardless of their faith, to join and work together for better prices and bargaining power. Using the neighborhood children, Keki reached out to their parents, urging them to become part of the co-op. The venture started in 2005 with approximately 250 members. As of 2016, there are more than 1,000 members participating. Half- and full-page captioned color photos liberally illustrate the text, which also describes the process of growing and harvesting the coffee cherries. VERDICT A useful selection for primary social studies curricula interested in foreign agricultural initiatives.— Eldon Younce, Anthony Public Library, KS

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ALA Booklist (Thu Sep 01 00:00:00 CDT 2016)
School Library Journal (Thu Sep 01 00:00:00 CDT 2016)
Bibliography Index/Note: Includes bibliographical references.
Word Count: 2,203
Reading Level: 5.7
Interest Level: 3-6
Accelerated Reader: reading level: 5.7 / points: 0.5 / quiz: 186789 / grade: Lower Grades
Reading Counts!: reading level:5.7 / points:3.0 / quiz:Q70269
Lexile: 890L
Guided Reading Level: T
Fountas & Pinnell: T

This stunning photo-essay for children is a story of coexistence, focusing on Jewish, Muslim, and Christian families in a Ugandan village who created a Fair Trade Coffee Cooperative and learned to live and work together peacefully. On the morning of September 11, 2001, J. J. Keki, a Ugandan musician and coffee farmer, was in New York, about to visit the World Trade Center. Instead, J.J. witnessed the terrorist attack on the Twin Towers. He came away from this event with strong emotions about religious conflict. Why should people be enemies because of their religions? Back home in his village, J.J. was determined to find a way for people who held different religious beliefs to work together. He saw that the neighborhood children, from Jewish, Muslim, and Christian families, played with one another without a care about religion. Why not enlist their parents, all coffee farmers like himself, in a cooperative venture around a shared goal? Together they would grow, harvest, and sell their coffee. At the same time, they would bridge religious differences to work and live together peacefully. Here is a rare and timely story of hope, economic cooperation, and religious harmony from an often struggling part of the world. From J.J.'s vision, his community has achieved what many people strive for: a growing peace.


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