Children's authors share green ideas
'Recycle This Book" is my new favorite book. Nothing could more brilliantly celebrate April's Earth Day and all its related ecologically minded events. True to the book's title, 100 celebrated writers share their best ideas on how to go green.
These range from the simple and practical - plant a tree (Katy Kelly); eat less meat (Maryrose Wood); pack a "trashless lunch" (Dana Reinhardt); walk (Roland Smith); hang a birdhouse (Jeanne DuPrau) - to the considerably more elaborate.
Gloria Whelan, a National Book Award winner, and her husband established a conservation easement on their property. Tanya Lee Stone began Project Angel Food, which gets expired but still healthy food from stores to those in need. "Within a few months, we were transporting five hundred pounds of fresh food a week to nonprofit groups in the area."
Rosemary Wells's daughter "was born laughing and born green." Nowadays she is an organic farmer in upstate New York and works with Cornell's organic research farm. "She owns a truck and a car and never buys gas or stops in a gas station. She uses only cooking oil to fuel them and pays almost nothing to drive three hundred miles, because all her fuel is free at the local hamburger restaurant. The cost of converting a car's motor to burn cooking oil is quickly paid for by the money she saves on gasoline."
Several of the authors supply not only practical suggestions but philosophical advice for better living. Newbury Medal winner Jerry Spinelli reminds us to buy less new stuff. He has a revelation one day while shopping in a mall. He spots "on the cover of a book the face of a poor mother who lives in a so-called Third World country" and begins to look at the consumerism around him in a new light. He calls Americans' buying habits a "national addiction" and offers a few cures: "1) Find other ways to have fun. 2) Buy stuff at thrift shops. 3) Donate your own used stuff to Goodwill and places like that. 4) Remember the poor mother."
Matt de la Pena, who grew up poor, writes, "I still live like I did when I was a kid. If I lived any other way I'd feel like a lazy, gluttonous sloth. I'm serious. I would disgust myself. Each of us, you know, we only need so much."
A few of these authors made the unhappy choice of talking down to their young readers, goofing around, and using what I think of as bubble-gum language, but most of them understand that the future rests in the hands of children, and address them with the thoughtfulness they deserve.
Ferida Wolff tells us that "anyone can think in new ways, at any age. Thoughts are powerful. When people change their thinking, society changes."
I keep "Recycle This Book" by my bed for nighttime reading and inspiration. A useful appendix at the back provides websites for further exploration. I've already put some ideas into use, and have plans for more. I'm using reusable bottles for my water now, packing my daughter's lunch in washable containers, planting a garden, and as soon as I finish writing this sentence, shutting down my computer.
Liz Rosenberg teaches at Binghamton University. Her first adult novel, "Home Repair," is due out May 1. 