This recycled packaging is very, um, absorbent.

Melanie Walsh.  10 Things I Can Do to Help My World.  Candlewick, 2008.  40 pages.  Age 3 to 7.

You’re clever people.  You don’t need an un-plot summary, do you?  It’s all there in the title.  Moving along…

The tasks in this book are simple enough—turn off the lights, sort the recycling—that none of us, young or old, could make excuses for not doing them.  At least, not with much conviction.  If you saw those late 1980s environmental PSAs at a time when you were still impressionable (like I was!) you’d never dream of leaving the faucet on, or leaving the refrigerator door ajar, else you might be singlehandedly responsible for the complete destruction of the planet.  Yes.  They were persuasive.

The book uses a bit of a novelty format.  Each “thing” (what? that’s what the title calls them) begins with “I [verb]…” (e.g., I remember, or I try, or I use).  Then you turn a page that resembles a lift-the-flap—except it runs the length of the spine, so it’s a practically-full page with a cleverly cut edge—and it finishes the sentence with a simple eco-tip, as the cover calls them.

On each page, there is also a sentence in a smaller font, often snaking around the illustration, that explains why walking to school, for example, is better for the environment.  There are some cases where further explanation, or careful rewordings, can be useful.  We can’t all walk to school.  I don’t usually advocate for those sorts of textual overrides, but we don’t have to sort our recycling in Manchester, so what else am I going to do?

As you might guess, the book is made from recycled material.  100%.  Cool!  A word of advice, though:  Keep pizza away from it.  We’re totally going to pretend that the grease stain is part of the cover design.  A book about reuse and recycling?  It’s not so far-fetched…

I would recommend this book for young children who are just learning about “helping [our] world,” or older children looking to start off with some easy life-changes.  Living the green life is not easy, and it’s reassuring to know that even small changes can make a difference.  For us grownups, it can be a fine line between reassurance and rationalization, but it’s way better to make these small changes than do nothing at all.

Nonfiction Monday is at Bookends today.

other reviews:
The Reading Tub | SimplyScience | The Well-Read Child | A Year of Reading