Kids’ Book Review: Keeping Our Earth Green, by Nancy F. Castaldo

Keeping Our Earth Green
By Nancy F. Castaldo
Williamson Books, 128 pages (Ages 9-12)

As the next generation navigates the challenges facing the planet’s health and, by extension, their own, Keeping Our Earth Green offers a useful roadmap. Each of four sections concentrates on one environmental theme—air, water, land, and energy—to examine an array of timely issues, from global warming and overfishing to waste disposal and biofuel production. Tip boxes on nearly every page offer numerous ways children can chip in, such as asking their local supermarket to carry sustainable seafood. Young readers will find additional inspiration in anecdotes about ambitious young people like Chad Pegracke, who founded Living Lands & Waters, a non-profit organization that cleans trash from rivers. For those who favor a hands-on style of learning, this book packs in plenty of do-it-yourself projects, including building a solar cooker out of a pizza carton, aluminum foil, and plastic wrap, or writing members of Congress to urge them vote responsibly on environmental legislation. Humorous cartoon illustrations—like the one of a mountain climber scaling a pile of paper trash—maintain a lighthearted tone while driving home a serious message: There are hurdles ahead; kids should prepare now to surmount them.