Here are some small reads about noble giants who have shaped our world to celebrate Nobel Prize Day. Call 847-458-6060 x135 to place a hold on one to have in time for bedtime stories tonight.
Desmond and the Very Mean Word
While riding his new bicycle Desmond is hurt by the mean word yelled at him by a group of boys, but he soon learns that hurting back will not make him feel any better.
God’s Dream
An introduction for young children to Archbishop Tutu’s message of forgiveness and empathy. Children close their eyes and see that God wishes that all people would treat each other with love and understanding, in spite of differences in language or appearance, or even if they live in faraway lands.
Nelson Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom
Alfred Nobel: The Man Behind the Peace Prize
Alfred Nobel was the man who founded what became known as The Nobel Prizes. Nobel also invented dynamite, becoming very wealthy from his invention. Saddened by its use for harmful destruction, Nobel left his fortune to create yearly prizes for those who have rendered the greatest services to mankind.
Mother Theresa
A biography of Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu, known as Mother Teresa, who spent most of her life serving “the poorest of the poor” in Calcutta, India.
My Daddy, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
An account of the author’s brief years shared with his civil rights leader father offers insight into their special bond, their separation during Dr. King’s imprisonment, and the author’s five-year-old witness to the famous “I Have a Dream” speech.
To Dare Mighty Things: The Life of Theodore Roosevelt
Explores the life of Theodore Roosevelt through vivid prose and the president’s own words.
Peeny Butter Fudge
Children spend the day with their grandmother, who ignores their mother’s carefully planned schedule in favor of activities that are much more fun.
Grandfather Gandhi
Mahatma Gandhi’s grandson tells the story of how his grandfather taught him to turn darkness into light in this uniquely personal and vibrantly illustrated tale that carries a message of peace.
Marie Curie
The story of Marie Curie, the revolutionary scientist and Nobel Prize winner.
Of Thee I Sing: A Letter to My Daughters
Malala’s Magic Pencil
As a child in Pakistan, Malala made a wish for a magic pencil. She would use it to make everyone happy, to erase the smell of garbage from her city, to sleep an extra hour in the morning. But as she grew older, Malala saw that there were more important things to wish for. She saw a world that needed fixing. And even if she never found a magic pencil, Malala realized that she could still work hard every day to make her wishes come true.
For the Right to Learn: Malala Yousafzai’s Story
Tells Malala Yousafzai’s harrowing story of standing up for girls’ education against the Taliban, being shot in the head, and surviving to continue the fight.
Little Cloud and Lady Wind
Little Cloud does not want to join the other clouds in terrorizing the earth with storms, but grows lonely and longs to look closer at mountains and seas, until Lady Wind makes her dream come true in this version of the fable, “The bundle of sticks.”
Be the Change: A Grandfather Gandhi Story
Poigant, personal story of the damage of wastefulness. Arun learns how every wasteful act, no matter how small, affects others.
Seeds of Change: Planting a Path To Peace
A biography of Kenyan Nobel Peace Prize winner and environmentalist Wangari Maathai, a female scientist who made a stand in the face of opposition to women’s rights and her own Greenbelt Movement, an effort to restore Kenya’s ecosystem by planting millions of trees.
Mario and the Hole in the Sky: How a Chemist Saved Our Planet
The true story of how Mexican-American scientist Mario Molina helped solve the ozone crisis of the 1980s and went on to become a Nobel laureate and a recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
Mama Miti: Wangari Maathai and the Trees of Kenya
The story of Wangari Maathai, who in 1977 founded the Green Belt Movement, an African grassroots organization, and in 2004 was the first African woman to be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.
The House That Jane Built: A Story About Jane Addams
This is the story of Jane Addams, the first American woman to receive the Nobel Peace Prize, who transformed a poor neighborhood in Chicago by opening up her house as a community center.