One Plastic Bag: Isatou Ceesay and the Recycling Women of Gambia (Millbrook Picture Books)

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This tour is hosted in partnership with Women Initiative the Gambia, a charitable organization. A special thank you to Lerner Publishing Group for donating books for several villages and schools. One Plastic Bag: Isatou Ceesay and the Recycling Women of the Gambia is an excellent biography about the events that were happening in Gambia and the impact made my Isatou Ceesay and the other Women of Gambia. Plastic has been creating a negative impact on the worlds environment. The story of Gambia is a real account of this issue. In a small country, where the people would drop their plastic bags on the ground and would just continue on with their day. Isatou was tired of seeing the negative impacts on her country, and was determined to find a solution. This is a great topic to bring in the social studies unit, the idea of how people can have positive and negative effects on the environment. It is also a chance for students to look at how one person made such an impact. This could be an opportunity for teachers to encourage students to find a problem in their school and create and action plan to create a solution. This is a moving real story about how one persons idea and motivation can be turned into a movement, and can make a huge impact on the country. This story can also be included into the math unit. Teachers can create story problems out of story of the recycled purses Isatou and the Women made. Students can think about the profit the Women made how they used the money. This book can be used in many ways in a 3rd grade classroom and can be connected to many different subjects. This book was a WOW book for me because the environment is something that I worry about and this book is encouraging to think that one person can create a huge movement for a country. I hope students would find the same encouragement in the book and would push them to be change in their own school. As the years pass, is no longer beautiful, the ugliness of the plastic bag is everywhere. People try to burn it but the smell is terrible. Mosquitoes breed in the water that pools in the plastic and disease spreads. Goats eat the pastic and it strangles their insides and they die. Isatou feels she can no longer ignore the situation. And she has the idea to gather a group of women to gather and clean the plastic bags and then to make thread of the plastic bags and crochet it into purses. Supporters outside of the Gambia can host a school visit or virtual Q&A with Miranda and Isatou to help us raise funds for books, transportation, and programming for Gambian youth! Learn more here.

All Done Monkey * Crafty Moms Share * Educators Spin on it * Growing Book by Book * Imagination Soup I’m Not the Nanny * InCultural Parent * Kid World Citizen * Mama Smiles * Multicultural Kid Blogs * Spanish Playground Some people laugh at these women. Others call them "dirty." But they believe what they are doing is good. And, eventually, others realize this, too. The purses sell, there is money to buy more goats, the village is clean. This presentation features slides with bulleted information about climate, school, food, language, and aspects of everyday Gambian life. Also includes photos and additional links. Isatou: Before I started this work, everywhere you would find plastic bags flying all over the environment. up to 2 kg of fruit and vegetables for your own use or for family and friends. They must be carried in your personal baggage and be free from pests or diseases;

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large electrical items such as laptops or tablets can be taken into the cabin, but must be removed from hand luggage at the search area and placed in the tray People thought I was too young and that women couldn't be leaders. I took these things as challenges; they gave me power. I didn't call out the problems- I called out solutions." Learn how to count in Wolof, and try converting these amounts of U.S. Dollars into Gambian dalasi. Involves addition, some multiplication or division. Grades 2-4.

The plastic was flying everywhere. What normally people did was just to burn the plastic bags to be able to get rid of the pollution. Otherwise, our animals, they will come across the bags and they will eat them. And when they eat them they will die and then we would lose a lot of income out of that. Through a colorful and descriptive narrative, the story of Isatou Ceesay is beautifully rendered in this magnificent children's book . The illustrations pay homage to a woman whose simple idea revolutionized the use of the plastic bag in Gambia. Isatou notices that, year after year, plastic bags keep accumulating. It occurs to Isatou to recycle the bags by reusing them. Originally its just her and a handful of women sewing strips of plastic bags into pursses that they proceed to sell. This idea is found laughable at first but eventually, it gains traction. Since than, Isatou has gained international acclaim, a deserved recogniton that could not to a better woman. People thought I was too young and that women couldn't be leaders. I took these things as challenges; they gave me more power. I didn't call out the problems -- I called out solutions." -- Isatu Ceesay

NEW! During the COVID-19 outbreak and school closures, many publishers are allowing educators to read picture books to their students in closed-link recordings. If you want to read One Plastic Bag on a video for your students, fill out this online form from Lerner Publishing to request permissions.

The bag has to be able to close and be sealed – overstuffed plastic bags will not be accepted and you can’t tie or knot the top of the bag Author Miranda Paul and illustrator Elizabeth Zunon tell the story of Isatou Ceesay in this poignant and inspiring picture-book biography, chronicling how the Gambian woman came up with a solution to the mounds of plastic trash strangling her small village. Although she had noticed the growing problem of plastic waste while walking through the village, it was the death of one of her grandmother's goats - strangled by the plastic bag it had eaten - that inspired Ceesay to begin working on the problem. Collecting the bags, she came up with a way to rework plastic into thread, which she and a group of women used to weave purses. This recycling effort was initially met with ridicule, but eventually it proved successful, not just as a means of using old plastic bags, but as a source of income for the women. Many good things would eventually come of this project... Classroom: This story gives teachers the perfect opportunity to incorporate science into literature. In the 3rd grade standards particularly, students begin learning about recycling and being responsible environmentalists within society. I would first read this book to students and then go into a short lesson about recycling and reusable materials. With this knowledge given to students, I will ask them ways to eliminate plastics in their own life. Students will then create an “Environmentalist Stanly” (I hope you are familiar with flat Stanley). They will create their environmentalists and then be asked to take pictures of the doll with the ways in which they will reduce plastic usages. This will create a fun activity that students can do both at school and at home if they so wish. Students will be given time in class to complete these projects and parents will be notified as well about their project. At the end of the project, I hope to have another conversation with students on how to reduce plastics and the things they realized about themselves participating in the activity.One Plastic Bag: Isatou Ceesay and the Recycling Women of the Gambia tells the inspiring story of five women who creatively dealt with their village’s plastic trash problem. Despite limited resources and ridicule, Isatou and her friends persevered for more than a decade, eventually realizing economic empowerment through their recycled plastic purse project. The book also includes bonus information such as a Wolof language glossary, timeline of actual events, and photos of the women of Njau. Explore a world of innovative ideas to upcycle, recycle, or repurpose plastic into usable items or beautiful artwork.

Mongabay Kids: What was the plastic bag pollution problem like in your community before you had the idea to recycle the bags into products like purses? It is rare to find a children’s book with such an important message about our environment, that is set outside the US, and is illustrated so beautifully! One Plastic Bag: Isatou Ceesay and The Recycling Women of The Gambia is the inspirational, true story about littered plastic bags and the woman who stood up and transformed her community. It is the perfect book to introduce environmental topics to kids like recycling, and also teaches that even one person can make a difference. The story begins on a walk in Njau, Gambia. At first, though, the plastic bags are wonderful. People carry things easily with them, children poke holes and drink water from them. Isatou thinks the colors are so beautiful. But, everyone simply discards the plastic on the ground and soon it becomes a problem. Students could explore the country of West Africa or the city of Gambia and learn more about its culture, its people, etc. As the ugliness grows and the litter accumulates, one day Isatou finds a goat is choking on a plastic bag it has ingested. “ She knows too much to ignore it now.”Bronze: Pomelo Books * Author Jacqueline Woodson * Papa Lemon Books * Goosebottom Books * Author Gleeson Rebello * ShoutMouse Press * Author Mahvash Shahegh * China Institute.org * Live Oak Media Students could make Before and After posters of the plastic bag situation in Isatou's village. Alternatively they could research their own recycling issue and create a Before and After campaign complete with radio, tv and print advertisements.