Book In Review

      This mid-sized children’s book, Help Your Parents Save The Planet, is just the right size for young readers to wrap their hands and their hearts around.  The subject is all about its 50 simple ways to go green now.    The book was written by Gregory Rutty and all of the photographs are by Shutterstock.  It was copyrighted in 2009 by Play Bac Publishing USA, Inc.  What I absolutely love about this book is that it is very hands on in it’s ideas for kids to make a difference in the world just by the choices that they make in their everyday life.

       For instance, I like the fact that they cover what kinds of things can be done in the kitchen.  Children are smart and they get to thinking about those ideas (they are contagious you know); once the ball gets rolling…they come up with some pretty smart ideas of their own.  Here the book talks about making better choices when shopping for groceries or even the items that we use to serve our meals and snack.   Household chores are discussed and really teach about making the most of conserving water while doing dishes.  Opening up a dialog with children about using real dishes instead of toss away, like paper or styrofoam, products shows children that even simple choices can impact the world and save money.

        Reusing or recycling products is a great way to go green and this book has wonderful pictures and suggestions for doing just that.  This book is wonderful also for the fact that it encourages the whole family to make a commitment to saving the planet by telling the children to “help” their parents.  Sometimes it takes the faith of a child to move a mountain. 

        Taking care of the earth is important if we expect to have a place for our children and grandchildren to live safely with all that they need.  Gardening is making a resurrgence and learning how to do it properly is not hard to do if someone takes the time to teach you.  Conserving water and protecting it is crucial to the health of human beings. 

         The pictures or photos in this book are colorful and are relatable for both children and their family to grasp the concept of nurturing the world that we live in.  Many of the ideas are familiar but some of them aren’t.  In fact, you older readers may be surprised by the wisdom of those elders before us who did precisely some of these things; perhaps without knowing exactly how wise they were.

          I would recommend this book for children from ages 5-12 (and their parents of course).