Every Wednesday I join Alyson Beecher from kidlitfrenzy and other
kidlit bloggers to share wonderful nonfiction picture books.
The intention of today's blog is to give educational professionals
new nonfiction reading material and ideas to use
with students to promote a love of reading nonfiction materials.
During the month of April, we often have thoughts about Earth Day which makes us think about going green, recycling, and making Earth cleaner.
Green City: How One Community Survived a Tornado and Rebuilt for a Sustainable Future
by Allan Drummond
I recently came across this book and thought it was a perfect book to use, really any time of year, but also during the month of April.
After a devastating tornado decimated their town of Greensburg, Kansas in 2007, the 1,400 citizens decided to rebuild. But instead of rebuilding exactly what they lost, they decided to look towards the future. Knowing "going green" was making a difference, they decided to make a conscious effort to rebuild, keeping sustainability in their minds.
The author used [green] sidebars to highlight some of the ways the community and builders planned and designed their homes and community buildings.
I thought it was interesting the book was written in the 1st person point of view. At first I thought perhaps this was something that happened to the author, but with a quick look at the author notes on the book jacket, I quickly realized it wasn't. At the end of the book in the back matter, the author tells us he wrote it this way because this could be the story of a number of city residents.
Want more books about helping the Earth? Pair with these books:
Energy Island
by Allan Drummond
This is the Earth
by Diane Z. Shore and Jessica Alexander
The Great Big Green Book
by Mary Hoffman
It's wonderful that that town did what is told in the book, and really great that they have a book written about it. Love the look of all these books, Michele. They will be good resources for Earth Day.
ReplyDeletePerfect timing! Being green is a big issue in my city (as in many cities I'm sure), so these books are great.
ReplyDeleteI love your comments about why it's written in first person. Such an interesting choice for a nonfiction book!
ReplyDeleteVery neat! I need to read more science-y books. I suspect my son is going to love science like his dad. Thanks for this one (and the others listed). I am going to add it to my list!
ReplyDeleteI have Green City on order and am excited to see it after reading Energy Island. I am going to try to put together a post tomorrow for Earth Day with three titles including the new This Is The Earth. Wendell Minor's illustrations are gorgeous.
ReplyDeleteI love Earth Day!
ReplyDeleteI'm sharing two titles next Wednesday :)
Thank you for sharing these.