Best-seller ‘Tea’ is now child’s play
Can a plus-size adult best-seller morph into a successful children’s picture book?
The answer is a resounding, if somewhat surprising, “yes” when it comes to Listen to the Wind: The Story of Dr. Greg and Three Cups of Tea, by Greg Mortenson and Susan L. Roth (Dial; 32 pages; $16.99; ages 5-8).
Roth’s vibrant collage art, full of cultural detail and high drama, helps chronicle the improbable tale of a lost American climber who finds safety in a Pakistani mountain village and eventually builds a school for the children. They narrate and give lyrical voice to the change that ensues – an indoor classroom, a teacher, lessons and hope for the future.
A concluding scrapbook documents construction of that first school at Korphe and explains Mortenson’s worldwide effort to raise money for more, especially ones intended for Pakistan’s girls.
Is a global do-gooder of interest to the neighborhood kids? Yes. And that’s because Mortenson’s compelling story, gracefully recounted in “Listen to the Wind,” is informational, important and deeply inspiring.
(c) San Francisco Chronicle 2009
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