Books on Green Issues Ten of the Best


Sue Unstead chooses her top ten ‘green’ books.


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In many households the most vociferous eco-warriors are often the youngest members, and woe betide you if the green police spot you sneaking an offending item into the wrong recycling bin. So it is good to see that there is a huge range of titles available on the environment and green issues, if only to educate parents. Children certainly don’t want to listen to doom mongers. All the books chosen here carry a positive message that it’s not too late if we act now and that even small changes can help make a real difference. There are whole shelves of volumes on recycling and greenhouse gases that will undoubtedly prove useful for school projects, but the titles listed here are ones that children might turn to more than once, and that a parent might enjoy sharing. They are books to light a spark and really inspire us to make changes. Most are printed on paper incorporating recycled materials and using vegetable inks.


The Trouble with Dragons Debi Gliori, Bloomsbury, 978 0 7475 9541 0, £5.99 pbk


The Trouble with Dragons is a caution- ary tale in picturebook format for little ones about what happens when dragons run amok, chopping down the forests and melting all the ice with their hot breath. ‘And we all know a dragon or two.’ Debi Gliori’s message to ‘respect all Earth’s creatures and cherish the land’ is all the more effective for its gentle humour and quirky artwork. (Under 5s)


Let’s Save the Animals


Frances Barry, Walker, 978 1 4063 1249 2, £9.99 hbk


Frances Barry’s striking collage artworks are used to good effect in Let’s Save the Animals, featuring creatures whose existence is threatened, from the African elephant and giant panda to the Emperor penguin and polar bear. Flaps and die-cuts add a novelty element to this simple introduction to animal conservation. (3+)


8 Books for Keeps No.186 January 2011


10 Things I Can Do to Help My World


Melanie Walsh, Walker, 978 1 4063 2029 9, £6.99 pbk


My Green Day


Melanie Walsh, Walker, 978 1 4063 1912 5, £10.99 novelty hbk


It’s hard to choose between Melanie Walsh’s 10 Things I Can Do to Help My World and My Green Day, so I include them both (and cheat on my total of ten). Cut-outs to peep through and flaps to open make the books fun to share, with their simple suggestions for preschoolers to make each day a greener day. (Under 5s)


Why the Animals Came to Town


Michael Foreman, Walker, 978 1 4063 2995 7, £5.99 pbk


A small boy is woken by ‘The tramp, tramp, tramp of marching feet, Louder and louder down our street,’ as a parade of animals from around the world visit him to bring an urgent message. Michael Foreman’s lyrical watercolours are matched by rhyming text to make a powerful environmental plea. There are echoes here of John Burningham’s evocative Oi! Get Off Our Train. (5–8)


31 Ways to Change the World We Are What We Do, Walker, 978 1 4063 2715 1, £5.00 pbk


Smart, stylish and guaran- teed to catch the eye of the most reluctant eco-warrior, 31 Ways to Change the World was written by 4,386 children ‘more or less’ and the action group We Are What We Do. This paperback edition of the bestselling Teach Your Granny to Text and Other Ways to Change the World is full of practical suggestions for creating change. Their maxim is: small actions x lots of people = BIG CHANGE. It puts the responsibility for making change into the hands of children – everything from recycling your toys to stopping junk mail. (5+)


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