Recycle This Book

by Dan Gutman (Editor)

FOR USE IN SCHOOLS AND LIBRARIES ONLY. With essays from renowned childrens book authors such as Ann Brashares, Jeanne DuPrau, Caroline B. Cooney, Laurie Halse Anderson, Bruce Coville, Gennifer Choldenko, and over 100 others, each piece is an informative and inspiring call to kids of all ages to understand whats happening to the environment, and to take action in saving our world.

Genres: Nonfiction, Green, Childrens, Conservation, Juvenile, Environment, Short Stories

288 pages, Library Binding

First published March 24, 2009

About the author

The author of over 80 books in a little over a decade of writing, Dan Gutman has written on topics from computers to baseball. Beginning his freelance career as a nonfiction author dealing mostly with sports for adults and young readers, Gutman has concentrated on juvenile fiction since 1995. His most popular titles include the time-travel sports book Honus and Me and its sequels, and a clutch of baseball books, including The Green Monster from Left Field. From hopeful and very youthful presidential candidates to stunt men, nothing is off limits in Gutman's fertile imagination. As he noted on his author Web site, since writing his first novel, They Came from Centerfield, in 1994, he has been hooked on fiction. "It was fun to write, kids loved it, and I discovered how incredibly rewarding it is to take a blank page and turn it into a WORLD."

Gutman was born in New York City in 1955, but moved to Newark, New Jersey the following year and spent his youth there.

Reviews

[Jill · Rating 5 out of 5]

Recycle This Book: 100 Top Children's Book Authors Tell You How to Go Green
by Dan Gutman

Great Teaching Tool


This review is from: Recycle This Book: 100 Top Children's Book Authors Tell You How to Go Green (Paperback)
Recycle This Book
By Dan Gutman

From the cover which looks like a recycled product, to the short simple ideas it contains, this is a very cleaver idea for a children's environmental book.

I enjoyed reading this compilation of stories by my favorite children's authors, sharing their wisdom about how to care for the earth. Tony Abbott recommends to the reader, "Think of everything you use as if we were running out of it."

Author William Sleator lives in a Thai village surrounded by fruit trees, where his family gardens, raise chickens for meat and eggs, an has a large tank to farm raise fish.

Rosemary Wells, author of more than 100 books, writes about her "Greenkid". Her daughter was born green, and grew up to teach others to grow organic gardens. Her greenkid even drives a car with used cooking oil.

In the article, "Alternative Power Rocks", Shannon Hale, author of Goose Girl, suggests that our families switch our power to wind power, which is available through our own power company.

Meg Rosoff recommends for readers to "Walk, Chill, and Make a Pile". Tip one: keep the heat down. Tip two: walk more, and Tip three: make a compost heap.

Author Elizabeth Levy writes about "Living in The City." 1- She doesn't own a car, 2- she rides a bike, 3-she takes the subway, and 4-she saves gas and the environment by living in the city.

This is a simple book of wisdom and ideas for living green. It can be read straight through, or savored by reading a few tips each day.
I highly recommend Recycle This Book for kids and their parents and teachers.

I checked the book out at the library, but after finding so many places I wanted to mark with a highlighter, I decided to buy my own copy.

Jill Ammon Vanderwood, author
What's It Like Living Green?: Kids Teaching Kids, by the Way They Live

[SaraKat · Rating 3 out of 5]

The essays contained in this book have a wide range of interest level for me. I preferred the later parts of the book focused on the community and the world. Some of the advice given to students I would not hope they follow--like the author who tells children to tell their parents they will clean up their room when the parents stop being wasteful. The ideas mentioned are mostly good, but many authors wrote about the same things so it got a little repetitive. There were several myths about organic foods perpetuated by essays and that is not a very scientific viewpoint, but the points made about buying in-season and locally grown produce were excellent. A kid reading this book would get some good projects and starting points from it, and several of the essays were really though-provoking. My students would not get as much from this book because it is aimed at upper middle-class children rather than at the poor. One author even mentions being poor as a great way to be a conservationist! It's the families that have the money to be wasteful that these essays will mostly be helpful for. I thought the best point of the book was Ben Mikaelsen's guiding question.

Whatever I do, every minute of every day, if everybody in the world were doing that same thing, would it be a better world or a worse world?

What a great idea to teach kids. If they throw a gum wrapper on the ground it doesn't seem like much. Leaving a light on doesn't seem like much. Taking a longer shower doesn't seem like much. But if everyone is doing that same thing, it gets bad very quickly.

[Cindi · Rating 4 out of 5]

Popular children's authors like Lois Lowry, Rick Riordan, Jane Yolen, Bruce Hale, and Jerry Spinelli all provide short essays detailing how they have chaged their daily habits to live a greener life. One hundred children's book authors were contacted by Dan Gutman ( a children's author himself) and asked what they do to reduce waste, save energy, conserve water, or help the planet become healthier. Each essay is the answer to those questions.


Kids love meeting and talking with authors and they pay attention to what those authors have to say. When children's authors suggest ways to recycle and live a more environmentally healthy lifestyle, kids are bound to listen and implement those suggestions into their own lives

Continue reading on Examiner.com 100 children's authors' tips for going green - San Francisco recycling | Examiner.com http://www.examiner.com/recycling-in-...

[Megan · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm doing a author study in Sandy's 4th grade class on Sara Pennypacker and so I picked this book up because Sara Pennypacker wrote one of the essays in this book.

Each short chapter is an essay by a different children's book author about taking care of our earth. It was a great selection of authors - Abby's class is doing a unit on Eve Bunting right now and she has an essay in there. Lois Lowry, Shannon Hale, lots of recognizable names.

It was ok as a read through, but I don't think most kids especially would be that interested in reading straight through.

[Mary · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well-known children's authors have written short essays about conservation and other "green" lifestyle choices. While raising awareness, the essays avoid political divisiveness. Tie-in with Earth Day, Spring. Use to extend author studies. Good for middle to upper elementary students although they will not likely select it or read through it for themselves. Teachers will need to read aloud or assign certain appropriate selections.

[Kathy · Rating 3 out of 5]

kinda nice. not a bad way to get to know a bunch of children's writers, too

[Kristin Cronkright · Rating 5 out of 5]

A quick, fun read for families looking to get more eco-friendly in their everyday lives. I love that the tips and stories come from renowned children’s lit authors. ♥️

[Lucy G · Rating 4 out of 5]

Loved it. Gifted it to a friend as the introduction requested the reader to do.

[Helen · Rating 3 out of 5]

In this book, 100 top children's book authors tell children a bunch of different ways to go green. Most of the authors do the things themselves, at home and in their communities. I liked getting to know a bit about some of my favorite authors. The ideas are very practical!

[Jean · Rating 5 out of 5]

A good inspiration to stats going green!!!!!!

[Viviane Elbee]

This is a collection of essays where Children’s authors share what they do (or have done) for the environment.

[Jo · Rating 5 out of 5]

It isn't really perfect; a lot of authors offer the same ideas – recycle, buy used, don't drink bottled water, turn the water off when you brush your teeth, etc. And some of the ideas aren't exactly feasible for the target demographic of this book – elementary-school-aged kids aren't exactly going to finance a solar roof. But while there are lots of ideas that I've already implemented and plenty of ideas that aren't exactly logical for me (I'm not in school anymore, so I can't organize a stuff-swap there), there are plenty others that are kind of brilliant. Give it a read, start out with the small things and work your way up. It might not be a lot, but these things snowball. Lots and lots of people doing their part is the only way change ever happens. (At least, the only way big societal change ever happens.)

[Jan Rue]

Recyle This Book: 100 Top Children's Book Authors Tell You How To Go Green, edited by Dan Gutman (2009). New York:Random House. Just as the title says, 100 children's author's give short 2-3 page talks about some type of recycling they do. And they are all written to kids by the authors. It is broken up inot 4 parts - Your Home, Your School, Your Community, & Your World. The ideas in here are wonderful and it would work well as a read aloud and having discussions on the topics the authors have written. As a class you could even take on one or more of the ideas which they talk about. A great resource book! It is also one which students would be able to pick up and read also in the intermediate grades especially.

[Tracy · Rating 4 out of 5]

100 children's authors share their best "Go Green" ideas with personal stories included. It's the usual ideas that you expect to hear but a tip from someone you admire, respect or idolize may help you remember. Years ago I read somewhere that Jennifer Aniston brushes her teeth while rinsing the shampoo out of her hair when she showers to conserve water -- you can't imagine the number of times I think about this while doing the same. Just don't get the toothpaste in your hair because then you'll have use up more water rinsing it out.

[Mary · Rating 3 out of 5]

While some of the essays in this were repetitive, on the whole they were short, humorous, and filled with good ideas. Few of them were new to me, as I've read dozens of books on green issues by now, but they would serve as a really good introduction to elementary/middle school kids about green issues. I particularly like that the focus is on what changes even kids can make to help improve our world, instead of just detailing how bad things are right now.

[Lizzy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Couple things:

-most of these tips were good, and well-written, but some were awful (watch & discuss An Inconvenient Truth at your child's birthday party?)
-pretty redundant (multiple authors wrote basically the same things)
-most tips were pretty common sense or well-known, but some were surprisingly interesting
-it was kind of cool to read the entries of authors I love&remember from when I was younger. It's nice to know so many of them are at least somewhat environmentally-conscious.

[Rachel · Rating 4 out of 5]

There are so many ways to go green that are really helpful for people of all ages, not just kids. Some of them are repeats throughout the book, but still really great. The book also has a few helpful websites, more would have been better. But it prompted me into buying green gifts, not using wrapping paper, and looking into finding a local farmer's market

[Todd Freer · Rating 4 out of 5]

100 authors suggest ways of going green in chapters called:
Part 1: your home
Part 2: your school
Part 3: Your community
Part 4: Your world

Points out that at some point, people who made these mistakes won't be around to fix them and it will fall on today's students to fix them. If they don't none of this will matter.

[Tanja · Rating 4 out of 5]

Many famous children's book authors share what they do to save our planet - simple ideas, which can easily be put into practice. The short 1-2 page essays not only make good read-alouds to spark discussions on taking care of the environment but also provide a great opportunity to learn about and get interested in a wide variety of authors.

[Marcie · Rating 3 out of 5]

This are such short passages I can see using it in the way I once used to book 50 Ways You can save the Earth. Each passage could be a read aloud prior to science class each day. I liked the sections (Your Home, Your School, Your Community, and Your World). Because there are so many, I probably would pick and choose the selections I liked.

[Jennifer · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a fun one to just pick up and read when there is only a few minutes to kill. The essays are only a couple of pages long. I can't ever pass up a good children's author anthology. Some of our favorites contribute here.

[Pam · Rating 3 out of 5]

The youngest family member received this book from our friend Debbie as her b-day present. Wow! It is terrific. She immediately started reading it, then started reading out loud to us, and has become engaged in the process of becoming more green. We have started implementing 2 ideas already.

[Beth · Rating 4 out of 5]

This would be a great book for reluctant readers. It includes 1-2 page essays on what each author does to make the world more green. Most are quite simple, with ideas that anyone can implement right away. Many of the essays are laugh-out-loud funny.

[Sara · Rating 5 out of 5]

I like it so much because the authors in this anthology are largely recognizable, the chapters are short, it's completely full of facts, and for the most part it is not boring or preachy. I plan to buy a copy for the classroom.

[Simon · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is great for idea for environmental Friendly and it Kids idea also it everyone. There is allot of author on the chapters so it great idea for tips about going to begin environmental books in the futures.

[Melissa · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a great collection of essays. I chose to read just those of favorite authors and found different mixes of humor and earnest green ideas. My son read it cover to cover and proceeded to question our lifestyle. So I guess it could have a positive impact!

[Sis_p5ejoseph · Rating 4 out of 5]

Tips from many famous authors on how to go green.Very interesting.

[Karen · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is a fun read.

[Jennifer · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was only okay. The idea behind the book is better than the actual content; the book gets repetitive quickly. Some parts were very funny and some parts were very silly.

[Karan Johnstone · Rating 5 out of 5]

I am going to buy this book and read it to my 4th grade class. Good ideas on how to save our environment.