By Dennis Littky with Samantha Grabelle
230 pages; Association for Supervision & Curriculum Deve
Available at: Amazon.com | Barnes & Noble | IndieBound

"Our school systems are flawed; not all children are getting the education they deserve," says the actress Malin Akerman, a onetime psychology major. So when friend and entrepreneur Marc Ecko passed along this report on Big Picture Learning, a movement cofounded by Littky that focuses on personalized education, she was "inspired and challenged" to take action; she now sponsors gardens at two local Los Angeles schools where children simultaneously learn about the nutritional benefits of fresh produce and how locally grown food is better for the environment. "These kids are going to rule the world," says Akerman. "It's up to us to decide how we want that world to look."

— As told to Abbe Wright