Saturday's Book

New children’s book by bestselling author Andy Andrews

Changing the World: Everything You Do Really Matters

Who would dream that a boy playing in Iowa cornfields would grow up and save the lives of more than two billion people?

The Boy Who Changed the World is the new children’s book by bestselling author Andy Andrews. Andrew says his goal is simply to teach children how important they really are.

“The reason I created this book was to give children proof about how much they matter,” he said. “The lesson I want people to learn is that the decisions you make today, big and small, can truly change the world.”

This delightfully told and superbly color illustrated book tells stories of how each of our lives is interwoven by decisions, big and small, that all together make up the world we live in.

Here is the incredible story of Nobel laurette Norman Borlaug, a simple boy with a desire to feed the hungry. Norman Borlaug was personally responsible for creating a hybridized high yield corn and wheat that grew well in arid climates.

But Norman couldn’t have done it without the help of another man, a very special man by the name of Henry, that is, Mr. Henry Wallace, Vice President of the United States. Who gave young Norman a job to work at an isolated experimental farm experimental research station in Mexico on funding provided by the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

But Henry couldn’t have given Norman that job were it not for the fact that Henry’s father was a professor and one of his students was named George. And George turned out to know a lot about plants and when he was 19 years old and a student at Iowa State University he was asked by his professor to take six year old Henry on “botanical expeditions”.

This brilliant student’s name was George Washington Carver and it was young George who pointed young Henry’s life in a specific direction, long before he became Vice President of the United States. George Washington Carver was the man who later went on to develop 266 things that we still use today from a plant we know as the peanut, and another 88 things we still use today from another plant we know as the sweet potato.

But George couldn’t have taken six year old Henry on those field trips were it not for a man named Moses Carver and his wife Susan. Now Moses and Susan lived on a farm and didn’t believe in slavery. This was a problem for criminals like Quantrill’s Raiders who terrorized the country side destroying property of people. And sure enough, one cold January night, the Raiders came to Moses and Susan’s farm, burned the barn and dragged off several people including a woman named Mary Washington, who refused to let go of her infant son. So they kidnapped her and took them away.

Moses went after them and convinced them to trade his only horse for the contents in a dirty burlap bag. As the Raider’s thundered off, he fell to his knees and opened up the bag and found a cold, naked, baby boy. He took him home and Moses and Susan adopted the baby and raised him as their own, and he survived to grow up to be the man we know as George Washington Carver.

So who is it that really saved two billion people?

The Boy Who Changed the World is an easy-to-read, beautifully illustrated book. It is written specifically to inspire and motivate children of all ages. The stories were carefully selected to provide children with a memorable experience that can be taught and shared with their parents and the proof that what they do really matters.

Andy said, “I think encouragement is great, I just think proof is better”.

The Boy Who Changed the World

By Andy Andrews

Illustrated by Phillip Hurst

List $16.99

Hardcover trade color 38 pages

Tommy Nelson Publishers

ISBN 978-1-4003-1605-2

The Boy Who Changed the World reveals the incredible truth that everything YOU do matters-what you did yesterday, what you do today, and what you will do tomorrow. Every choice you make, good or bad, can make a difference.

In this engaging tale, bestselling author Andy Andrews shows children that every action, however big and small, can have a ripple effect around the world. The Boy Who Changed the World, is a children’s version of his popular book The Butterfly Effect.

The book is full of vibrant illustrations created by English illustrator Philip Hurst. They are as varied as they are frequent, going from green Iowa cornfields, to a blazing Kansas barn, to a flourish of butterflies against a pale blue sky.

Several additional free PDF file downloads are being released to enhance parent and teacher and children’s experience with the lessons Andy teaches in the book. A 54 Page Teacher’s Curriculum Guide has been developed for schools and homeschoolers. A one page Reader’s Guide is available containing 15 discussion questions for parents and teachers to help expand their children’s experience and learning of the key lessons in the book. The guide includes questions like:

1. When you have an idea you should act on it right away. Do you agree?

2. If you had an idea that could potentially change the world, what would be your first step?

3. Do you think you have the ability to be anything you want to be? Are your chances better or worse than anyone else’s? Explain your answer.

4. Why should you never give up on what you set out to do? What does it mean to persist without exception?

5. Do you have big dreams and goals? How do your dreams and goals affect the rest of the world?

The Teacher’s Guide and the Reader’s Guide can all be downloaded at the Andy Andrews website:

http://www.andyandrews.com/education/

For more information visit www.AndyAndrews.com

WHO IS ANDY ANDREWS?

Andy Andrews, hailed by a New York Times writer as someone who has quietly become "one of the most influential people in America,” is a best-selling novelist and in-demand corporate speaker for the world’s largest organizations. The Traveler’s Gift, a featured book selection of ABC’s Good Morning America, has been translated into nearly twenty languages and was on the New York Times bestseller list for seventeen weeks. His latest book, The Noticer was also on the NY Times bestsellers list. His recent books include The Heart Mender, The Butterfly Effect, and Return to Sawyerton Springs.

Andy has spoken at the request of four different United States presidents and toured military bases around the world, being called upon by the Department of Defense to speak to the troops. He is one of the most popular and in demand speakers in corporate America. Arguably, there is no single person on the planet better at weaving subtle yet life-changing lessons into riveting tales of adventure and intrigue—both on paper and on stage.

He lives in Gulf Shores, Alabama, with his wife, Polly, and their two sons.