"The Lorax" by Dr. Seuss
The Lorax was published in 1971 following the environmental movement of the 1960s. In this classic Dr. Seuss story the greedy Once-ler discovers that he can make "much desired" Thneeds from the tufts of Truffula trees. He proceeds to cut down the Trufulla trees despite the warnings of the Lorax was lives there. The Once-ler becomes rich, but destroys the trees and the local environment in the process. But he is not stupid; he does save a seed from the tree. Being true to his uncaring attitude he doesn’t plant it himself, but gives it to a boy to plant and take care of. Even when there is nothing left but a broken down factory, the greedy Lorax manages to make money off the destruction by charging people for information he has on how the place became so desolate. This book has been a FAVORITE of mine for most of my life! I owned a copy when I was little and now, my children have a copy!
"Stuff!: Reduce, Reuse, Recycle
" by Steve Kroll
Pinch the Packrat learns the value of stuff. He has so much stuff in his house that it was spilling out into the street. His friends decide to have a tag sale in order to make money to buy a tree for the community park. They ask Pinch if he would donate some of his stuff, but Pinch loves his stuff and doesn’t want to donate any of it. At the tag sale, he sees how much money he could earn by selling his stuff, so he decides he will sell some of his stuff so he can buy even more stuff. Pinch soon learns that he gets more satisfaction from seeing the other animals playing and enjoying his stuff than he received from owning all that stuff. When he is asked to donate the money he made from the sale to buy a tree, he isn’t so sure he wants to do it. He goes home to think about it, and realizes how nice it is to live in a clean, tidy house without stuff everywhere. The next day he decides to sell even more stuff and gets his friends to sell their stuff so that they can buy even more trees.
"It’s Earth Day! (Little Critter)" by Mercer Mayer
Little Critter is on a mission! After watching a film about climate changes at school, Little Critter decides to do his part to slow down global warming. With the help of his family and friends, Little Critter begins to reduce, reuse, and recycle. Together they learn about the importance of not wasting water or energy. Join Little Critter as he plants a tree, makes a climate control machine, and helps the polar bears.
“William the Garbage Truck & Crew: William is Going Green” by James Martin II
William, the garbage truck, is fired from his job because he is too loud and smoky. William is very upset and tries to get a job elsewhere but finds out he needs to have a new hybrid engine and he just does not have the money for it. What is he going to do? Things turn around for William when he does an act of kindness and is rewarded. William is once again doing his job, but this time he is ‘in the green.’ Find out how this happens and the difference it makes for William and everyone else. This is a great little book. The illustrations are very colorful and definitely bring the story to life. The storyline does two things. One, it teaches the children the importance of thinking about our environment and making changes to help protect it. Second, it shows them that a kindness shown to another often results in others being kind to us. We love this book! Even my son’s first grade teacher wants a copy!
More books about “going green” and Earth Day:
Please share your favorite Earth-friendly books!
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