The Big Green Book


Ian Winton and Fred Pearce, Eden Project/Random House, 978 1 905 81143 4, £12.99 novelty hbk


The Big Green Book, produced by the team at the Eden Project, uses pop-ups, flaps, tabs and mini books to explore the ways in which we can help protect our planet. Colourful and busy, it should appeal to primary age children. (8–10)


How the World Works


Christiane Dorion, Templar, 978 1 84877 189 5, £12.99 novelty hbk


How the World Works takes a similar approach, describing itself as ‘a hands-on guide to our amazing planet’, using pop- ups and moving pages to explain processes such as the water cycle, the weather and ocean currents. Information on green issues such as carbon footprints and ‘bioaccumulation’ are incorporated as part of the story. (8–10)


Spud Goes Green


Giles Thaxton, ill. Nigel Baines, Egmont, 978 1 4052 1731 6, £5.99 pbk


Spud Goes Green, winner of the Blue Peter award for Best Book with Facts, adopts just the right tone – chatty without be- coming hectoring. Our hero Spud is engagingly dim, so it’s down to his knowledgeable friend Adi to offer most of the advice. A mixture of prac- tical projects and information is neatly combined in diary format, helped along by copious jokes and cartoon artwork – everything from fixing leaky taps and draughty doors to growing your own vegetables and composting. (8–10)


10 ‘ 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…


’


One Hen


Katie Smith Milway, ill. Eugenie Fernandes, A & C Black, 978 1 4081 0981 6, £6.99 pbk


One Hen has a slightly different thrust, focus- ing on sustainable development. It tells the story of how one small loan – of a few coins to buy a hen – made a huge differ- ence not just to one boy and his family but to a whole community in Ghana, West Africa. It’s a book for sharing and for discussion about the bigger pic- ture of global citizen- ship and responsibility for one another. (8–10)


Gaia Warriors Nicola Davies, Walker, 978 1 4063 1234 8, £9.99 pbk


For older readers, the suitably challenging Gaia Warriors teams zoologist Nicola Davies with the creator of the Gaia theory James Lovelock to show why we need to join the fight to deal with global warming and climate change. Davies puts over a very positive message that it’s not all doom and gloom and that change can be challenging and exciting. She writes: ‘I think there’s a shift


happening in people’s hearts and minds, not just towards the need to save our skins from climate change, but towards a more deeply respectful relationship with the planet that’s given us life.’ (10–14) n


Sue Unstead was a publisher of children’s non- fiction for 25 years and is now a freelance editorial consultant and writer.


Books for Keeps No.186 January 2011 9


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