Customer Reviews

50 Simple Things Kids Can Do To Save The Earth (Turtleback School & Library Binding Edition)

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I first read this book years ago as a child. Perhaps the few reviewers on here who do not like the book (and use this review as an outlet for their own personal politics) on here do not realize that parents, teachers, community leaders and religious leaders hardly shelter kids from the outside world as it is, and this book will not upset children, ruin their happiness or waste their childhood at all. As a kid, my friends and I readily accepted this book and were happy to carry out many of the suggestions. Adults seem to look down on kids a lot and think that they just want to play all day and have little care for anything but themselves. The things kids love, such as animals and the outdoors, are in danger, and this book lets kids contribute to help saving them. There are plenty of little tips in this book that do not advocate huge, drastic lifestyle changes. This book also does not come across as preachy or arrogant. Overall it is practical and enjoyable to read.

I checked this book out from the library and we enjoyed it so much we had to buy one. This book contains simple eco-friendly ideas anyone can try, such as making a bird house out of a milk carton, planting a garden to attract butterflies and other creatures, how to avoid overuse of styrofoam and other non-recyclable materials. It does not suggest major lifestyle changes, just small changes that can add up over time. And it is fun to read! It contains mini-quizes for kids on each topic, such as: which of the following will a worm not eat- vegetables, dirt, or steak?(answer= worms don't eat meat). Each idea includes a question & answer, a description of the concept (such as recycling), a few projects to try at home (such giving old toys to charity or having a yard sale instead of throwing them out), and addresses to write to for more information (such as the National Wildlife Federation, which can help you plan a custom made wildlife-friendly yard). Great, simple projects for kids - a grown-ups too. I am going to buy the sequel as well and look forward to reading it cover-to-cover.

This book is totally awesome. I am interested in the environment and since this book includes quotes by kids my age, I feel I am really connected. It makes me feel really cool, like I can really make a difference in the world. And it helps. It tells you ways to help the earth- simple ways. And I learned a lot from it. It has a lot of good, interesting facts in it too.

I like this little book because it's realistic and doesn't try to use scare tactics. It's not put out by radicals and it isn't trying to get us to take on too much, too fast. Those who politicize the ecology bug me to death. As if taking care of this planet that we fleetingly occupy is about whether you're on the right or the left, where you stand on gun control, taxes, what defines marriage, or whether the school board should remove Huck Finn from the high school shelves. Making the earth's environment better is selfish, because we stand to benefit from it. It's a planet we share, folks, and we're not doing all we could to leave it in good shape for those who are here now or will live on it when our time is done.

Let's get this straight once and for all: being environmentally conscious does not mean you're a tree-hugging liberal! What it means is, you like a planet that doesn't make you, your children, your grandma and your pet golden retriever sick. The Soviets were a leftist nation and they destroyed their ecology past the point of no return. On the flip side, the right-wing American President Theodore Roosevelt, as Republican as can be, has as one of his legacies the establishment of the National Parks System. "Saving" the planet is not the exclusive domain of leftists, nor-saying it again here--does it equate you with "tree huggers" if you try to do something that benefits the environment. I personally like clean air, clean water, a place to take a walk in nature without stepping in a nice glowing barrel of toxic sludge, don't you? I don't care if you're farther right than Sister Attila the Fourth-Grade Nun you can't honestly say you don't want there to be forests for you to go hunting in, or unpolluted rivers left for you to take your grandkids trout fishing in, am I right? And, yes, we ALL can recoil at the well-intended but self-defeating environmental fanatics who alienate the mainstream society of America by being too extreme and dogmatic. This book is not written for those who chain themselves to an endangered species of mollusk and go on hunger strikes to protest a TV show on global warming. This excellent little book is not like that at all. It presents what I think are really worthy ideas for cleaning up around the neighborhood where you live. It sets some nice projects out for kids (and grown ups) to get done and that is surely better than not educating our young people in environmental responsibility.

Okay, let me put it this way: would you rather have a child dear to you outside some weekend picking up litter, planting a tree in the side yard and sorting recyclable materials, or would you rather have that child sitting in front of the TV with a PS2, becoming another statistic in the epidemic of pre-teen obesity? This book is a small step in the right direction, and if it does nothing more than makes someone, whatever the age, think about the connection between personal behavior and the state of the earth's environment, then it's a nice investment of time and money.

I loved this great book on caring about the environment. It gave me facts and how I could help save the planet by not using my car, recycling and reusing. You Must read this book!

I got this book for free when i was 9 years old. I didn't even know what it wanted to state, but we were told to take one book as a gift for the book-fair week. I opened the first pages, and since then my mind tasted for the first time the importance of being aware of your invironment. Best of all, it praised my position as a little child and perfectly able to do some small then, and as time goes by, even greater actions to help the world. I need to confess, I am currently 23 years, and I never forgot a page of the book and that point of view made me ever more participaint in the struggle of a just cause. It was great growing up with that book, i even bought the other books, such as the recycler handbook and another which i can't remember now. Unlike other books, this one takes the child out of the "craddle" of the human world and slowly lets him or her take the first steps toward exploration and wonder with what is the real craddle called nature. Strangely, i remeber buyinh the audio cassette version after a year and listen to it every night before i fell asleep...because it feeds you with so much interesting information that a simple child can understand and appreciate

As a kid, I constantly read this book, and it inspired me to make changes and think about way to be more environmentally friendly. I recently bought this book remembering how impactful it was to me as a kid.

We recycle and are sensible about our power and resource use in our home. While this book offers lots of information and easy ways to reduce our effect on our environment, it is a little preachy. Overall, I found this very useful as part of our story hour theme for Earth Day.

Melissa Poe, age nine: "Mr. President, if you ignore this letter we will all die of pollution and the ozone layer" (from Newsweek "Just for Kids!?!").

Catherine Mitchell: "Our Earth is getting hotter every minute and the only way we can stop it is to stop burning styrofoam

I'm also too young to die, might I add, so stop burning the Earth! " (from the FACE newsletter).

Jesse Hornstein, age 10: "No gases! No air pollution! It's life or death" (from 50 Simple Things).

Adam Adler, age 11: "I think global warming and the greenhouse effect are very bad! What do we want the earth to become, a flaming ball?" (from 50 Simple Things).

50 Simple Things takes a number of things that have traditionally been a source of joy for children and turns them into potential nightmares. "Helium balloons? Big, bouncing, bobbing . . . Oops? When helium balloons are released, they are often blown by strong winds into the ocean. Even if the sea is hundreds of miles away, balloons can still land there. Sometimes sea creatures think balloons are food and eat them. Sea turtles, for example, eat jellyfish - which look and wiggle just like clear balloons. If a turtle makes a mistake and eats a balloon, the balloon can block its stomach. So the turtle can starve to death."

Similarly, it tells children, "most crayons are made from oil. Since oil comes from prehistoric creatures, you might be coloring with the last remains of a Tyrannosaurus Rex!" or "Have you ever made pictures with markers? Some have chemicals with names like 'toluene' and 'ethanol' in them. Creating these chemicals makes pollution and uses oil."

Even toys don't escape the wrath of environmental education. "Toys just don't come from toy stores. They come from materials taken out of the Earth. So if they break right away, and you have to buy new ones to replace them, you're not only creating a lot of extra garbage, you're using up the treasures of the Earth."