Recycle Every Day!

by Nancy Elizabeth Wallace

Minna, a creative bunny, wants to win the Community Recycling Calendar Contest. She knows a lot about recycling but just can’t come up with the perfect idea for her poster. Minna’s family helps her find inspiration as they share their own recycling efforts. The book’s bright, bold cut-paper illustrations are enhanced by Wallace’s use of recycled materials such as bubble wrap, envelopes, and wallpaper. With games, activities, and recycling suggestions, this book is destined to be read again and again.

Genres: Picture Books, Science, Environment, Childrens, Nonfiction, Family

41 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2004

About the author

Nancy Elizabeth Wallace attended the University of Connecticut, and majored in sociology and psychology with a minor in art history, then continued on for a master’s degree in child development.

For many years, she worked at Yale-New Haven Hospital with children and teenagers as Child Life Specialist helping children to understand what was going to happen if they needed to have a medical test or an operation or a cast.

Then she took two adult education courses, one was about traditional Scherenschnitt (share- en -sssh -nit) scherren means scissors, schnitt means cut. The other was about writing and illustrating children’s books. When she brought in a
cut-paper illustration, the teacher said, “You’ve found your medium!”

Nancy is married to Peter Banks. They have been married for more than 30 years. He is a high school Physics teacher.

They live in Branford, Connecticut.

Reviews

[Janet Chen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Neat book with great illustrations, this book also deals with the months of a year because the students are making a calendar on recycling I think it is a great idea to maybe do the project with your students, also through out the pictures you can find the different things that are recyclable.

[Gracie McBride · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is about a bunny who is trying to decide for a theme for her submission for a calendar about recycling. Throughout the book, the bunny and her family recycle in many different ways to brainstorm ideas for the calendar. I won't say what she chose to do because I don't want to spoil the ending but it was a very cute story with fun characters and creative ideas! There are even recycling patterns throughout the book.

If a teacher wanted a book about recycling to read to their students, I would highly suggest this one! The book includes a couple of different activities related to recycling such as a board game in the back that a teacher could do with their students. It would be an excellent book to read aloud in the classroom to celebrate Earth Day!

[Keren · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this book! The book is about recycling and it shows different ways to recycle. I really liked this book, especially in the current climate change situation I think it is a great book to get children involved. The book had great illustrations and really good ideas. In the book, the children made calendars of how to recycle every month and it had really great ideas. This book brought really good ideas I will be using in my classroom.

[Elizabeth Smith · Rating 4 out of 5]

super cute children's book on a very important topic! This book about a family of bunnies discusses the importance of recycling and how to go about recycling. Throughout the book the mom and dad bunny are teaching the children how to properly recycle things. This book also talks about the days of the week when the family creates a recycling calendar, so it teaches multiple things at one time. This would be a great book to read to your students as a teacher!

[Spencer Jones · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed this book because it has a good message of recycling. Getting young people in the habit of recycling regularly is a good thing because it helps make our world a better place for the future. I also enjoyed the illustrations by Nancy Elizabeth Wallace because it looks like they were cut out and glued right on the page! This book is animal fantasy and in the 1st-5th grade range

[Mackenzie Keffer · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was really cute and had a lot of colors and illustrations in it. The story is about Mina, a creative bunny, that wants to win the Community Recycling Calendar contest. She knows all about the three R's of reducing, reusing, and recycling but can't think of the perfect idea for her poster. I think this story is important to read to teach young learns about the three R's in recycling!

[Joanna Pingel · Rating 4 out of 5]

I find the book not only super cute but also informative. This book allows young children to be entertained while learning about the importance of recycling. It helps give good ways to recycle that are easy and fun. I also think that the pictures are one that a child would enjoy.

[Adeline Arpin · Rating 5 out of 5]

There are many different ways to recycle that you can do every day of the week. Minna goes on a journey with her family showing all these different ways to recycle to save our beautiful planet. This book is perfect to teach kids to reduce, reuse, and recycle!

[Caroline]

Fun Recycling Primer

Beautiful illustrations and simple text make this a great introduction to basic concepts of sustainability practices for children and adults alike.

[Katie · Rating 3 out of 5]

This had a broad range of recycling ideas which was great. Overall it didn't really grab me though and for some reason my toddler really disliked it (no idea why).

[Katharine Snyder · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book, Recycle Every Day! Is a content book I chose to read because the idea of recycling is so important, and yet to kids it is a completely new idea. Having books such as this, encourage children to recycle in new ways, giving many examples and ideas other than simply putting recyclables in a different bin. It is also a good book because in the story, the children make posters to put together a calendar, and it is a competetion. This could spark an interest for children to include their schools in the recycling movement. This book also had incredible illustrations. The pages were made of what looked like cutouts, and had bright colors that kids would love to look at. This book was a very good message, and also a fun and easy read that gave me, myself some new ideas for recycling!

[Ali Hembree · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is appropriate for the grades pre-Kindergarten to 2nd grade. For students that are learning what all they can and can not recycle, this book does a great job at describing those objects. The story is about a family choosing to recycle and all the various objects they go through in which they discover they can recycle. For example, they recycle clothes by giving them to a clothing shelter, compost from the kitchen scraps, empty cans to the recycle center, books to a used book store, and they packaged leftovers up in plastic containers to eat at a later date.

[Cheryl · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a children's picture type book. Minna is making a poster for a recycling calendar and as her family goes through what it does to recycle, they keep saying this would be a good idea. At the end they show the children's pictures for each month and Minna's poster is picked to be the cover. The children enjoyed the book but I felt most of the ideas weren't things the children could easily do. There wasn't anything about turning off lights or not wasting water or food.

[Karen · Rating 3 out of 5]

The illustrations in this book are somewhat cute and sweet, but, even though the entire book is a message about how to recycle every day, the ending is not especially strong, so the story is not especially strong. Also, all the fun seems to have been sucked out of this picture book and replaced with didacticism.

[Amanda]

Very cute book about a recycling. Covers many aspects and even has a game in the back which we will probably play today knowing my game-hungry preschooler. I love that the illustrations are made using reused materials and they are even cataloged at the end of the book.

[Katherine · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Recycle Every Day!" is a good book to read to your students about the ways one can recycle. This book would be great to real-aloud before a school donation drive was held, and a recycling science lesson.

[Raven Grider · Rating 2 out of 5]

The information in this book is great. However, there is too much information for the story to be interesting. The illustrations are quite dull and average. I would use this book before a school clothing drive or something of that nature, but I wouldn't necessarily read this book for fun.

[Maria · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great book about recycling. Has many different ways to impact the environment, including using reusable bags, walking and riding your bike to get places and giving your old clothes away to be reused. Goes beyond just sticking your cans in a recycling bin.

[Saashya Rodrigo · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great way to encourage children to save the environment. Every little bit helps, and that's the essence of this book. I also like the unconventional illustrations- very unique and certainly a great source of inspiration for an art project.

[Rachel Yingling · Rating 2 out of 5]

The little girl in this book wants to come up with a great idea to do a recycling poster for a contest. She spends the weekend with her family trying to come up with the best idea. Finally she makes a great poster to show everyone how important it is to recycle.

[Vanessa Adams · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book would be a great way to teach children the days of the week and incorporate ways to recycle on each of those days. The book goes through all seven days of the week and would be a great book to get the children to retell back to me.

[Rehema Payne · Rating 5 out of 5]

Recycle Everyday is a great book to teach kids about recycling. The book walks through the week day by day in a family of recyclers and gives examples of recycling and how to recycle different items around the house.

[Antonia · Rating 4 out of 5]

I remember as a child, the state of New York started the Recycle, reduce, Reuse campaign. It was a hit. Children all over the state were collecting cans, bottles, and clothing to contribute something. This book reminds me of my family support and how we all got together to recycle in our house.

[Kevin Bokay · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good book for earth day celebrations. Gives kids an awareness of what they can do to reduce waste.

[Alicia · Rating 5 out of 5]

I like that this book is about recycling.

[Brittany N · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book can be used to explain recycling. It exposes children to the good of recycling.

[Heather Edrington · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a great book for introducing recycling to young children and showing them they can make a difference.

[Tam · Rating 3 out of 5]

My 5-year-old was bored with this book but it does give a lot if basic ideas on ways to recycle. I didn't like the "illustrations". The end of the book has a recycle game and activity.

[Heather · Rating 4 out of 5]

My 4 yr old really enjoyed this book for some reason. I thought it was just okay and not too creative.

[Stephanie Watson · Rating 3 out of 5]

A bit too cutesy for my taste, but effective for teaching ways to recycle