Garbage or Recycling

Garbage or Recycling? is one of six books in Crabtree’s “Good to Be Green” series that encourages children to embrace environmentally friendly habits. The copyright pages in all the books contain a number of suggested “Before, During and After Prompts” while the penultimate page, “A note about sharing this book”, is directed at any adults who are reading the book with (a) child(ren).This section explains the book’s purpose and suggests ways that adults can use the book with children. The “Good to Be Green” books have all been illustrated by Diane Ewen whose cartoon style artwork presents readers with multiracial characters.

In Garbage or Recycling?, readers meet fraternal twins Nasir and Nadia who, finding themselves bored on a rainy weekend, decide to make a model out of junk. Their project will have a practical purpose as well for they will enter their finished product in their school’s “Make a Junk Model from Recycling” competition. The siblings’ search for recyclable materials begins at home where they sort discarded items into two piles, “things that can be recycled, and a pile of things that can’t.” When the children’s father sees all the nonrecyclable materials they have gathered, plus the amount of recyclable material that their project won’t require, he suggests they all take a trip to the landfill and the recycling depot. The twins carry their project through to completion, and it wins the competition. In a number of instances, the author, via text printed on a green background, adds some factual information related to a recycling situation. For instance, when Nadia takes a can out of the recycling box, Chancellor adds: “Cans made from a metal called aluminum can be recycled to make new cans, or used to make parts for planes and bikes.”

Following Garbage or Recycling?’s main text, Chancellor provides a five-question true/false test plus a “Get Active” page that offers four suggestions of recycling activities that readers could undertake. In addition to using recycled materials to make their own model of something, children are encouraged to construct a collage that incorporates both materials that can be recycled and those that cannot. Finally, after researching “sea animals and birds that are in danger because of plastic pollution”, children are invited to shoot a short film on the subject using a video camera or smartphone. The book’s final page is shared by a glossary and an index, with the former consisting of words that had been bolded in the text.

Though the storyline in Garbage or Recycling? is someone thin and, at times, seems forced, the book still provides Early Years students with a good introduction to the concept of recycling.