Arden Taylor – illustratör

★ “Moving and bittersweet…Discusses the reality of slavery and the racial violence and prejudice formerly enslaved individuals experienced.” — Booklist, starred review

In 1841, a 12-year-old enslaved boy, Edmond Albius, made history when he discovered how to hand-pollinate vanilla plants using a bamboo twig.

Until that time, only bees in Mexico could pollinate the plant—botanists couldn’t figure out another way. With his master, Edmond travelled around Réunion Island to share his technique, le geste d’Edmonde (Edmond’s gesture), which is still in use today. Despite his important achievement, as an enslaved person Edmond didn’t receive payment or recognition for his contribution to science, eventually dying in poverty after being freed from slavery in 1848. Today it is recognized that Edmond’s method of pollination was key to bringing vanilla to the world, helped to create a billion-dollar industry and gave us the flavor we love to use in cooking, baking, medicine and, of course, ice cream.

The epub edition of this title is fully accessible.

Community is essential for humans. But living together comes with challenges—challenges often solved by engineers!

Access to clean drinking water? Engineers did that. Managing garbage? Engineers too. Safe and comfortable places to live with electricity and running water? You got it, engineers. Engineers are also behind the communication and transportation networks that keep our communities operating smoothly. Oh, and advances in healthcare? You can thank engineers for those too.

Engineers have been shaping our world by designing and building amazing structures and machines for thousands of years. From ancient civilizations to modern metropolises, engineering inventions have been essential to human survival and prosperity. In Why Communities Need Engineers, young readers will discover how engineers have shaped life as we know it and how they make safer, greener and more livable communities.

The epub edition of this title is fully accessible.