Join the summer book club. Each week, all summer long, we’re running a review of a book for children or teens.
“Recycle This Book, 100 Top Children’s Book Authors Tell You How to Go Green,” edited by Dan Gutman, ages 9 to 12
You want to help the Earth, but how? You remember to turn off the lights (most of the time!), but what else can ordinary people do that will make a difference?
“Recycle This Book” will help answer that question. It has 100 tips with real-life ideas for you and your family to become more green. The best part is that these short pieces of advice, most just two pages long, are written by some authors you know and love, such as Andrew Clements (“Frindle”) and Lois Duncan (“Hotel for Dogs”). They are all fun to read.
Author and illustrator Lisa Desimini, for example, suggests some smart ways to get the chemical cleaners out of your house by using natural products, such as baking soda and lemon oil. Author Iain Lawrence writes about how he became an activist, joining with neighbors to fight the building of a pollution-causing power plant on the island where he lives.
Author Rosemary Wells, who has written more than 100 books, tells the story of her grown daughter becoming an organic farmer and then converting the engine in her car to run on cooking oil rather than gasoline. The car runs on oil from the local hamburger restaurant.
If 100 essays on ways to go green aren’t enough for you, then check out “The New 50 Simple Things Kids Can Do to Save the Earth” from the EarthWorks Group. It’s an update to the popular first edition, which came out in 1990. One neat idea shows you how to tell if your shower puts out too much water by using an empty milk carton.
The Washington Post
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