Earth Day

is every day.  So my list of my Top Ten Kids' Books for Earth Day is NOT late!  And here they are.

10.  Hoot by Carl Hiaasen.  The new kid in town meets the fastest kid in town and together they plot to save the nesting grounds of an endangered owl from crooked property developers.  Eco message heavy and full of high jinks this is a quick, enlightening read.

9. Inch by Inch : the Garden Song by David Mallett.  This picture book version of the '60s era folksong celebrates working in the dirt and the natural cycle of life.  Cooool, man, groovy!

8. The New 50 Simple Things Kids Can Do to Save the Earth by Sophie Javna.  Reworking the advice from the original version of this book (c1988?), the author gives easy-to-accomplish tips for developing an eco-friendly lifestyle.  So easy a kid could - and should - do it.

7.  Planet Earth Projects by Oksana Kemarskaya.  This activity book is on this list because it is BRAND NEW and full of fun science projects using recycled items AND it is printed on 60% post-consumer paper, too.

6. Wangari's Trees of Peace by Jeanette Winter.  Here's a picture book biography of Wangari Maathai, the activist founder of the Greenbelt Movement, an NGO dedicated to planting trees, women's rights and environmental conservation.   Her solution to many of Kenya's problems was to plant more trees!  Good advice wherever trees are native plants!

5. Easy to Be Green : Simple Activities You Can Do to Save the Earth by Ellie O'Ryan.  This book gets a bunch of stars for explaining carbon footprints to kids and advising them on how to reduce their own carbon footprint - and the book offers other suggestions, too.

4. A World Without Fish by Mark Kurlansky.  Scary, well-thought out and full of good advice, this book explains what is happening in the oceans due to commercial fisheries and pollution.

3.  Get Real : What Kind of World Are You Buying? by Mara Rockliff.  Rockliff explains where the things we all want to own come from.  She covers shopping choices from shoes and clothes to food and electronics.  She discusses where the materials come from, what farming, manufacturing and disposal processes do to the environment and to local economies.  The book is accessible to teens and pre-teens which makes it PERFECT for busy adults, too.

2.  The EARTH Book by Todd Parr.  A picture book for the youngest environmentalist!!  Parr's eye-popping colors and simple shapes underscore the simple things we can teach all of our children to do to conserve water, clean up our neighborhoods and make a more lovely world.

1. The Lorax by Dr. Seuss.  This book and Earth Day are both 40 years old this year.  And Seuss' fable of commercial greed and careless misuse of natural resources is an anthem for a new generation.  Take care of the world around you UNLESS....  After oil spills in the Gulf of Mexico, and here in PA, and with the radiation seepage in Japan, this book's message is still fresh and new.  Where is the Lorax to speak for the trees, now?