Green Options

Have you ever heard the urban legend about alligators living in the sewers of New York City?  Well if you want to know the truth, look no farther than The Underground Gators written by our very own Tina Casey!  Tina actually worked in the sewers of New York City for the Department of Environmental Protection, so she knows the real scoop on alligators living under the Big Apple.

The Underground Gators is a delightful, imaginative story about NYC alligators that also explains such mysteries as to why school buses are yellow and socks go missing from the washing machine. Booklist writes:

This slapstick picture book begins by dispelling the urban myth about alligators living in the sewers of New York City: “To be honest, nobody has ever really seen them.” Then Casey hedges a bit. Just because there hasn’t been an eyewitness, she reasons, doesn’t mean that the alligators aren’t there. Together, Casey and Munsinger try to make a case for the ’gators’ existence, and the result is this over-the-top, comedic offering. All kinds of mysteries can be explained, it seems, by adding the alligator angle. Why are manholes round? So that the pizzas that alligators love to order can be easily passed through. What do babysitters do after kids go to bed? They play cards with alligators. There is a lot more silliness than sense here, but Munsinger makes it work in hilarious scenes of the endearingly goofy reptiles marching through the human world, from summer school to a child’s bedroom, where they stand in for the tooth fairy.

It’s summer vacation, and one thing parents often hear from children used to being stimulated by school all year is, “I’m bored!”.  Personally, I am never bored, so I have little compassion when I hear my daughter issue this utterance, but I have found a new book that I think will help her overcome the doldrums. Let’s Go Outside!: Outdoor Activities and Projects to Get You and Your Kids Closer to Nature is a great resource for bored children.

Just as I have little understanding of boredom, I also never find myself needing an activity while experiencing nature beyond hiking and observing; however, children are a different breed. They sometimes need help focusing their energy.  Author Jennifer Ward provides 52 outdoor activities.  From “Playground for Poets” to “Five Fine Forts”, the summer boredom crisis is solved (and these activities are limited to warm summer months).  Furthermore, these games and projects are designed for children ages 8-12.  Here’s an example:

Now that the weather is warm there is opportunity to shake off the winter doldrums and get the kids some fresh air and sunlight. Hopefully getting your kids to want to spend time outdoors will not be an issue for you but if it is you may just have to get creative.

Indoor entertainment certainly has its place but when they get outside to play or just enjoy a sunny day they get exercise and they connect with nature. Richard’s Louv’s book Nature Deficit Disorder is just full of reasons why we need to make a conscious effort to get our kids out of doors.

One simple way to do this is to take story time or homework outdoors.

The Legend of Honey Hollow by Jeanne McNaney is a great children’s book that introduces kids to the problems related to the destruction of animal habitat and global warming.

Occasionally, I come across a rare gem of a children’s book that warms my heart.  It’s not a book that attempts to “dumb down”, simplify, or infuse awkward silliness into an important issue facing the world today, such as global warming.  It’s not a book just for children.

It’s Tribal Alphabet, a multicultural children’s book presenting the ABCs of indigenous people.

Tribal Alphabet is beautifully illustrated and informative.  From Australian Aborigine to Zulu (and all the letters in between), children and parents learn about each tribe following the alphabetic progession.

Nn is for Nukak

Along the Amazon Basin, the Nukak migrate

A tribe never contacted ’til 1988.

The Nukak hunt monkeys, frogs, and peccaries too,

They fish for piranha in the rivers blue.

But now outsiders have sent in expeditions

And some Nukak suffer from disease and malnutrition.

Coca farmers and armies occupied their land

So the Nukak marched out, bow and arrown in hand.

Tommy Tofu Saves the Day by Joanne Rose is a delightful, entertaining, and lighthearted story about the adventures of four veggie friends; Polly Potato, Casey Carrot, Zachary Zucchini and Lucy Lettuce. These friends make being a vegetable cool which just may make eating veggies a much more awesome experience.

If you are teaching your child why eating Vegan is important (and fun!) this is the book for you. Even if you [...]

This fall, a heartwarming book titled Looking for Miza:  The True Story of the Mountain Gorilla Family Who Rescued One of their Own by Juliana Hatkoff, Isabella Hatkoff, Craig Hatkoff, and Dr. Paula Kahumbu will be released to raise awareness of the endangered mountain gorillas.  Last summer, ten of the world’s remaining 700 mountain gorillas were tragically massacred.  This book was born out of the true story of Miza, who’s mother was killed, and a need to educate children, teachers, and parents about the mountain gorilla crisis.

The beautiful photographs by Perter Greste of Miza and her family help tell her incredible tale.  Miza is a young gorilla living in Virunga National Park in the Democratic Republic of Congo, where just over half of the world’s mountain gorillas live.  In June 2007, park rangers Innocent and Diddy discovered that Miza and her mother were missing from their family group.  They immediately began looking for Miza, as her survival was at stake.  What surprised the rangers was that Kibirizi, the family group’s silverback, also went looking for Miza and her mother.

As the head of the family group, Kibrizi was responsible for protecting the 31 gorillas in his family. Before he began his search for Miza, he took his family high into Mount Mikeno to hide in his absence.  After several days, Kibrizi returned with Miza, but her mother was never found.  Miza’s mother was one of the ten massacred mountain gorillas.  Miza almost died without her mother’s care, but she was adopted by her big sister and learned to eat on her own.

I am glad to see that authors are writing books for children on climate change. Rising Above Global Warming, written by B. J. DeFrancesco and illustrated by Shari Lynn Myers, is the story of a father and son.  The father, named Dee Nile, does not believe in global warming and owns polluting factories.  The son tries to talk to his father about the effects of climate change they are observing, and his father’s standard reply is “poppycock”.

Rising Above Global Warming is the first children’s book I have read that deals with the denial many adults have about climate change.  I imagine many children try to have conversations with their ignorant parents on the subject, similar to the characters in this book.  Eventually, as the ocean rises, snow melts in the mountains, and the beloved birds leave the town of Terra, Dee Nile realizes climate change is real and happening. The characters then make positive changes, such as planting trees and powering the factory with wind power. Their efforts pay off, and the effects of climate change are reversed.  DeFrancesco explains:

My story is positive.  It empowers children to get involved and not be afraid to act. I want them to know they can make a difference.  The bottom line, it is not too late to do something about global warming. It starts with one person making a difference, then it escalates.

My daughter is a vegetarian, a choice she made on her own as a four-year-old. I am a vegetarian, but her father eats fish and the rare locally-grown beef. As a toddler, we let her make her own food choices, as I figured her body would tell her what healthy choices she needed.

When she was old enough to realize that an animal was harmed for her food, she made the choice to join me in a vegetarian lifestyle. She was the only vegetarian in her kindergarten class. Now, her best friend has become a vegetarian and her teacher is a vegan. Thus, she was very excited to read a book about a vegetarian dragon!

Herb, the Vegetarian Dragon, written by Jules Bass and illustrated by Debbie Harter, is the tale of the only pacifist, vegetarian dragon in the forest of Nogard. The other dragons ate royal princess, brave knights, and wild boar meat, but Herb had his own vegetable patch. When all the dragons fled to hide from the brave knights who decided to retaliate and capture all of the dragons, Herb was mistakenly imprisoned as one of the meat eating, killing dragons. While he was incarcerated, the other dragons tried to tempt him to eat meat:

“Thanks, but no thanks,” Herb said. “I don’t see it your way, so I’ll take my chances. I don’t ask you to stop eating meat, so why do you ask me to stop eating vegetables?”

There’s a plethora of wonderful children’s books on gardening, but there is always room for more! What’s This? A Seed’s Story by Caroline Mockford is a charming story about a child’s discovery of a seed and the cycle of plant life. I was lucky enough to have my six-year-old daughter read this book to me for her homework.

What’s This? A Seed’s Story begins with a bird discovering a seed one winter morning. I anticipated the bird would eat the seed, then deposit its droppings somewhere and begin the plant’s life; however, my prediction was wrong. Instead, a little girl, along with her marmalade cat, discovered it and “planted the seed carefully in a corner of her garden.” My daughter has her own garden, as I believe every child should, so I was happy to see the main character in this book also has her own garden bed. (Fellow writer Beth recently wrote about her child’s birthday garden, but back to our story…)