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Sibo Makes a Difference
Sibo is an energetic young girl who has always cared for planet but didn’t realise just how bad it really was... until she met the Earthman. After hearing what he had to say, she embarks on various energy saving projects and realises that even little changes will make a BIG difference.
36 pages, Library Binding
Published January 1, 2008
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April 19, 2018
What with parts of South Africa currently undergoing the worst drought in a century, Ginny Stone’s colourful reader for children (primarily of middle school age), Sibo Makes a Difference could mean a world of difference to how the broadness of perspective that the younger generation has on the crisis. Especially useful, given the water-saving strategies that one is being urged to put in place, are such tips as:
“You could even take a much shorter shower
Then your Mom would save more money on power [and water, of course].”
However, the goal of spreading greater awareness among the young of how to cope with the numerous daunting challenges with which they, and their environs, are presented is a much broader one than having to cope with any single resource, however dire the current crisis might be.
The basic storyline of Sibo Makes a Difference reveals how Sibo’s school is inspired to start a recycling project by a visit from Earthman, an environmentalist, who urges them all to help save the world by doing whatever they can to help prevent global warming. Then, Sibo enlists the help of a friend to move the refrigerator in her Mom’s kitchen out of the sunlight to save on the amount of power it uses, much to her Mom’s chagrin. Though she ultimately gains her father’s support on this one, Sibo has a real struggle with getting his backing when she wants him to downgrade his much beloved, but gas-guzzling jeep to a more efficient form of transport. In short, the importance of gaining the support of children from a young age to help counter the universal threats that might otherwise undermine the very fabric of our socio-economic existence should not be underestimated.
The sooner that children learn
“If we each do just a few things per day
It will lessen the price that we all have to pay”
the better.
On a slightly lighter note, as with her other Sibo books, Stone makes the characters in Sibo Makes a Difference come alive and so easy to relate to that all children are likely to revel in the fun and spontaneity of the story. No doubt the author must have spent some time on coming up with the rhyming couplets in which the story is written, but it reads with such fluency and ease that one remains unaware of such challenges presented to the writing process.
The full-page illustrations support the text in the liveliest of ways, with many of them containing additional wording in bubble script, so that one gains the feeling that one is reading a comic, rather than a more formally structured book. The format should, consequently, definitely appeal to even the most reluctant of readers. In addition, the lilting metre of the rhyme lends itself to being read aloud, which should tangibly add to the mutual enjoyment of the text, especially in a school setting.
For computer-literate kids who are able to access such technology at, or after, school, some books in the Sibo series are available as free reads on the https://sibo.co.za/books website. So, if they’re just reading one of the Sibo books in class, they can read all the others online, too! Great value for money, so, whether you’re an anxious Mom who wishes that she knew better about how to prepare her children to face the lifelong challenges that lie ahead, a school teacher who wishes to encourage learners to improve their reading skills with memorable and highly accessible texts, or any concerned adult who wishes to encourage greater environmental awareness among the young, do buy at least one of the Sibo books and start your kids reading today!
“You could even take a much shorter shower
Then your Mom would save more money on power [and water, of course].”
However, the goal of spreading greater awareness among the young of how to cope with the numerous daunting challenges with which they, and their environs, are presented is a much broader one than having to cope with any single resource, however dire the current crisis might be.
The basic storyline of Sibo Makes a Difference reveals how Sibo’s school is inspired to start a recycling project by a visit from Earthman, an environmentalist, who urges them all to help save the world by doing whatever they can to help prevent global warming. Then, Sibo enlists the help of a friend to move the refrigerator in her Mom’s kitchen out of the sunlight to save on the amount of power it uses, much to her Mom’s chagrin. Though she ultimately gains her father’s support on this one, Sibo has a real struggle with getting his backing when she wants him to downgrade his much beloved, but gas-guzzling jeep to a more efficient form of transport. In short, the importance of gaining the support of children from a young age to help counter the universal threats that might otherwise undermine the very fabric of our socio-economic existence should not be underestimated.
The sooner that children learn
“If we each do just a few things per day
It will lessen the price that we all have to pay”
the better.
On a slightly lighter note, as with her other Sibo books, Stone makes the characters in Sibo Makes a Difference come alive and so easy to relate to that all children are likely to revel in the fun and spontaneity of the story. No doubt the author must have spent some time on coming up with the rhyming couplets in which the story is written, but it reads with such fluency and ease that one remains unaware of such challenges presented to the writing process.
The full-page illustrations support the text in the liveliest of ways, with many of them containing additional wording in bubble script, so that one gains the feeling that one is reading a comic, rather than a more formally structured book. The format should, consequently, definitely appeal to even the most reluctant of readers. In addition, the lilting metre of the rhyme lends itself to being read aloud, which should tangibly add to the mutual enjoyment of the text, especially in a school setting.
For computer-literate kids who are able to access such technology at, or after, school, some books in the Sibo series are available as free reads on the https://sibo.co.za/books website. So, if they’re just reading one of the Sibo books in class, they can read all the others online, too! Great value for money, so, whether you’re an anxious Mom who wishes that she knew better about how to prepare her children to face the lifelong challenges that lie ahead, a school teacher who wishes to encourage learners to improve their reading skills with memorable and highly accessible texts, or any concerned adult who wishes to encourage greater environmental awareness among the young, do buy at least one of the Sibo books and start your kids reading today!
Displaying 1 of 1 review