March - EcoReads for Kids
Theme: March - EcoReads
Quote: Along with milk and vegetables,kids need a diet of rocks and worms:
Rocks need skipping.
Holes need digging.
Water needs splashing.
Bugs and frogs and slimy stuff needs finding.
Window by Jeannie Baker
Window is a groundbreaking work which points to one possible direction for books in the future - the wordless picture book. It also has a serious purpose, to give children an understanding of how growth affects the world we live in. (While it has no text, it does not lack words; what words there are, are incorporated into the visual images; some of the scenes are 'immersed' in print.) The central image is a window. Each of the thirteen double-page spreads shows the window frame and the view outside the window - the reader is always standing inside, looking out.
Belonging by Jeannie Baker Thirteen years passed between these companion titles. 'A friend spoke about a street she really loved in inner Sydney. This street of terrace houses had been closed to traffic. It's windows, walls and pavements were filled to overflowing with plants, growing from window boxes, from breaks in the pavement, from pot plants, creeping up and covering walls of the houses. It was a narrow street but full of character … a place where neighbours chatted and children played.' The community in ‘Window’ have a home: but in my mind we could call any place home whereas the word ‘belonging’ implies an emotional connection. If one wants to really belong to something one has to work at it and contribute to it. - Jeannie Baker
The Tomorrow Book by Jackie French & Sue Degennaro A timely picture book about a young prince who is determined to rule over a country where the future is filled with environmental hope - and practical solutions, such as common usage of solar and wind power. Lively, fun and positive, this book serves to give young people information about their world and shows them that a lot of environmental solutions are simple and relatively easy to put in place. Produced on recycled paper to reflect the message within, this is a beautiful book.
Uno's Garden by Graeme BaseWhen Uno arrives in the forest one beautiful day, there are many fascinating and extraordinary animals there to greet him. And one entirely unexceptional Snortlepig. Uno loves the forest so much, he decides to live there. But, in time, a little village grows up around his house. Then a town, then a city. . . and soon Uno realises that the animals and plants have begun to disappear. Enter the magical world of Graeme Base's forest, filled with wild and wonderful animals, Uno's unique family and friends and also - the elusive Snortlepig!
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| Mud, mud, glorious mud! |
