SMALL PRINT
Green picture books fun for children
February 28, 2010
Deirdre Baker
While the rest of the world has been marvelling at Vancouver's warmest winter in more than 100 years, I've been marvelling at children's books on recycling. What goes around comes around, as these picture books make entertainingly apparent.
In The Smash! Smash! Truck (David Fickling, 32 pages, $21.99, ages 4 to 7), Aidan Potts, a.k.a. "Professor Potts," starts where it all began – with the Big Bang. "Since then very little has been added and nothing taken away," he tells us.
The glorious smashing sound of the recycling truck dumping bins on recycling day is the framework for Potts' succinct account of the cycles of earth, water, plants, animals – and human detritus.
"Atoms don't wear out," he says. "You were part of billions of other things. You contain atoms that used to be in glass."
All the more reason then for the "Smash! Smash!" truck, which makes the whole atom-recycling process faster. Atoms can't be thrown away, "but we can make them useless for a very long time" by sending them to a landfill. That's why the sound of the recycling truck is a "splendid, sensible sound" – an explosive, neon yellow SMASH!!!
The Smash! Smash! Truck is impressive for its clarity in describing how humans are materially implicated in the substance of earth and sky. Illustrator and comic strip artist Potts shows an impeccable sense of design as well as timing in this always energetic, direct and informative picture book. The sound of smashing glass provides a mental soundtrack of celebratory excitement, and the dynamic graphics satisfy not just the eye but the brain as well. Exceptionally engaging and effective.
Beverley Young, illustrator, and the Templar Company turn to pop-ups, flaps, tabs and paper dials in How the World Works (Templar, 16 pages, $23, ages 5 to 9), a quick and lively introduction to the world's natural systems from the Big Bang and the origins of life through to today's food chain and the problem of bioaccumulation. Life's prehistory, the movement of tectonic plates, water and weather cycles, ocean currents, the carbon cycle – with a few clear sentences and attractive, intelligible diagrams and graphics, kids can get some sense of how these work.
The relationship of all the cycles to global warming is made apparent throughout. A "what is carbon?" section illustrates the greenhouse effect, defines "carbon footprint," calculates the carbon emitted in the production of a hamburger (a multi-layered, lift-the-flap affair), describes the carbon cycle and humans' effect on it, and even, in a pull-out section, introduces a few tips about energy efficiency we have derived from plants and other animals.
The interdependency of life and the conservation of energy is the constant under-story here. Full colour pages, clear tones and well-designed special effects make this both appealing and illuminating.
The meaning of "carbon footprint" is embedded in a fictional story in Sandy's Incredible Shrinking Footprint (Second Story, 24 pages, $15.95, ages 4 to 7) by Femida Handy and Carole Carpenter, with collage illustrations by Adrianna Steele-Card.
Playing on the beach near her Grandpa's, Sandy is disgusted to find the rubbish from environmentally doltish picnickers strewn all over the sand. She starts clearing it up and is befriended by the "Garbage Lady," who applauds her efforts – "Imagine what the world would look like if everybody dumped their garbage and nobody cleaned up after themselves" – and introduces the "footprint" concept.
Sandy goes home and with her parents, makes a list of "footprint-shrinking things" that she can do. The authors conclude with a list of ways we can shrink our footprints – including this truly altruistic bit of advice: "trade books with our friends or go to the library."
This cheerfully didactic tale is more concerned with behaviour than explanation, but among preschoolers it might make a good precursor to The Smash! Smash! Truck. It has the further credential of upholding its own values: all the illustrations are made from recycled and natural materials.
Author Deirdre Baker teaches children's lit at the U of T. Her Small Print appears every two weeks.
Toronto Star