Free the Tree! Clarice Bean:What Planet Are You From? by Lauren Child

Mrs. Wilberton wants us to do a project called The Environment, which is nature study really.

Nature is something I know a lot about. We have got lots of it in our backyard. There's even nature in the Baldini Brothers yard (although you wouldn't think so to look at it! It's got many cans and concrete and pieces of old cars.)

Robert Granger lives next door, and he's always trying to walk home with me. Lucky I'm a fast walker.

When Clarice Bean gets to school late for the second day in a row, she finds to her dismay that she's assigned to work with Robert Granger on the project. She's underwhelmed by his choice of subject--documenting the racing records of snails and worms--but when Clarice arrives home, an exciting cause is waiting for her. Her 'tweener brother Kurt arrives all hot and bothered about the city's plans to cut down everyone's favorite 100-year-old tree on Navarino Street.

"I won't have any dinner because I am too depressed to chew!" Kurt says.

Grandad switches off the television, so, of course, we know he's upset.

Soon it's a family protest movement. Kurt and his friend Morten set up a tent, prepared to camp around the tree's base to prevent the cutting crew from having their way. Clarice and little brother Noah set out to make signs which read FREE THE TREE, Dad makes veggie spaghetti to feed the demonstrators on site, and Mom climbs right up in the lower branches of the famous tree. Even Robert is intrigued by the sudden eco-activity on Navarino Street.

"Why is your brother camping, Clarice Bean? Is he on vacation?" he asks.

I say, "No one takes a vacation on their own street, nitwit. They're having a protest!"

The protest soon draws the media, and the local newspaper prepares an article with a dramatic photo of the FREE THE TREE protesters, under a banner headline TREE TO BE CHOPPED DOWN ON NAVARINO STREET. And when Clarice arrives for school the next day even later than usual, Mrs. Wilberton threatens to call her mother right away.

Mrs. Wilberton wants to know why I am late again and where the Dickens is my snail and worm project.

"We have been up 'til all hours saving the planet on our street," I say, "She can't get to the phone right now, Mrs. Wilberton, because she's up a tree."

Mrs. Wilbertson says, "Right. That does it, young lady. We do not tolerate nonsense in this class!"

But Robert Granger says, "But it's true, Mrs. Wilberton!" He shows her the picture from the paper. And that's the only time Robert Granger has been useful EVER!

"I have been being an ecowarrior!" I say.

Mrs. Wilberton's smile is a little tight at the edges.

But of course she has to say "Well done, Clarice Bean."

Lauren Child's Clarice Bean, What Planet Are You From? (Candlewick, 2010) has been niftily recycled in its first American paperback edition, with intriguing die-cut covers and Child's perky and popular Clarice Bean's frank asides and expressive face put to good use in a hometown eco-adventure just right for reading during Earth Day activities. The author offers plenty of ecological information along with her droll story of a heroine who is always in on the action, even if it takes her right up a tree.

Pink Goes Green! Fancy Nancy: Every Day Is Earth Day by Jane O'Connor

I DO NOT LIKE THE COLOR GREEN VERY MUCH.

YOU CAN TELL BY MY CRAYONS. THE GREEN ONE LOOKS ALMOST NEW.

BUT I ADORE BEING GREEN. (ADORE IS FANCY FOR REALLY, REALLY LOVING SOMETHING.)

Even though Nancy confesses no fondness for the color green, she takes to the Earth Day assignment like a duck to clear water. Earth Day "is like a holiday for the Earth!" she says, and Nancy is soon busy enforcing Ms. Glass's rules for going green at home with her own family.

1. LESS THAN A MILE? THE BIKE IS IN STYLE!

2. PLEASE TAKE NOTE! ALWAYS BRING A TOTE! (TOTE IS A FANCY WORD FOR A SHOPPING BAG.)

3. IT'S BETTER TO WEAR A SWEATER.

4. DON'T WASTE WATER. GET CLEAN BUT STAY GREEN.

Her fond family is familiar with Nancy's penchant for following her passions, shall we say, enthusiastically, and they cheerfully go along with her suggestions until Nancy's zeal causes a few problems. Finding her mom's computer left on, Nancy switches it off, only to find that her mother returns with a needed book to find that she has lost the document she was doing for work. Then, that night, Nancy sneaks back into her sleeping little sister's room to turn off her night light.

NOW SHE DOESN'T NEED THE LIGHT ON. I TIPTOE INTO HER ROOM AND TURN OFF HER LIGHT.

IN THE MIDDLE OF THE NIGHT I WAKE UP. I HEAR MY SISTER CRYING.

Nancy bursts into tears of remorse when she realizes she is the cause of her sister's midnight fright. Naturally, Mom and Dad are not exactly happy to find both girls awake and crying in the wee hours of the night. In the morning they have a little talk with Nancy about making choices.

"IT'S IMPORTANT TO BE GREEN, AND WE WILL TRY HARDER.

BUT YOU MUST NOT BE SO BOSSY AND YOU MUST BE FLEXIBLE."

And to mark their agreement on sustainable conservation, the Clancys celebrate that night with a special dinner, lit by candlelight and with cloth napkins on the table.

GUESS WHAT? GOING GREEN CAN BE VERY FANCY.

Jane O'Connor's newest I-Can-Read offering, Fancy Nancy: Every Day Is Earth Day (I Can Read Book 1) (Harper, 2010) does a fine job as a first introduction to the concept of Earth Day and provides some simple precepts of conservation (such as turning off faucets and electronics when not in use), while also hammering home the need to be considerate of others' needs. Earth Day, once an welcome opportunity to talk about the need to curb pollution and conserve nonrenewable energy, has now turned into a thorny green thicket for writers for children, and O'Connor shows a bit of courage in taking on the subject. Although the author has already gotten some criticism for being "preachy" here, "waste not, want not" has always been good advice, and O'Connor has taken pains to have Nancy learn to be thoughtful of others' needs before making blanket pronouncements, good advice as well. This book, in keeping with its reading level, does not go into the complex details of environmental education, but makes a great early-grade jumping-off place for classroom activities built around the Earth Day observance.

As always, the illustrations, here done in Robin Preiss Glasser's signature style by Olga and Aleksey Ivanov, are delightfully detailed and appropriately fancy, and a glossary ("Fancy Nancy's Fancy Words") and a list of Ms. Glasser's tips for going green ("What Nancy Learned") is appended.

The Friz Goes Green: The Magic School Bus and the Climate Challenge by Joanna Cole

When Ms. Frizzle (a.k.a "The Friz") turns up at school with a big old book called Our Wonderful World, the kids are slightly intrigued when she tells them it was her book when she was their age. The idea of their teacher as little nine-year-old Valerie Frizzle catches their interest, but when she opens her book, they see the usual ho-hum geography layouts--snow-covered mountains, waterfalls, glacier fields--good to use to paint the scenery for their grade's play on energy, but nothing as exciting as their teacher's usual startling openers.

But then, Ms. Frizzle comes out with one of her famous portentous remarks:

"LET'S GET REALLY UP-TO-DATE INFORMATION!" SHE SAYS

"I HATE IT WHEN SHE SAYS STUFF LIKE THAT," ARNOLD GROANS.

And the class is off on one of their fabulous field trips, which not surprisingly revisits some of the scenes shown in Ms. Frizzle's childhood book. Except--are they really the same? Flying over the Arctic Ocean, Dorothy Ann notices something.

Dorothy Ann opened Ms. Frizzle's old book. The pictures showed ice everywhere.

There was still plenty of ice in the Arctic, but a lot had melted, and more was melting all the time.

And retracing all the sections in Our Wonderful World shows the same remarkable changes. The permafrost on the northern steppes is turning the region into a muddy mess; former farmland looks like a desert from the air, and rising oceans are causing their inhabitants to move away from the coast. The kids are struck by the difference in HOW IT LOOKED THEN and HOW IT LOOKS NOW. What happened?

Ms. Frizzle explains that although there are lots of variations in weather from day to day and year to year, the climate has shown steady changes since her childhood, with warming temperatures in the polar regions and in the oceans which have had remarkable effects all over the globe. As the students learn about the changes in climate caused by greenhouse gases--water, carbon dioxide and methane, for example--they begin to have an appreciation of the uses of renewable, non-polluting means of energy production such as solar, hydroelectric, geothermal, wind, and nuclear. Back in the classroom the kids have a new appreciation of what they can do to conserve, right down to using energy strips to take their electronics off the grid when not in use. The class and The Friz renew their pledge together.

"I'M GOING GREEN! THEY PROCLAIM.

"I'VE ALWAYS BEEN GREEN," NOTES LIZ (THE LIZARD.)

The winning team of author Joanna Cole and illustrator Bruce Degen have carried off one of their most ambitious science expeditions in their latest, The Magic School Bus And The Climate Challenge (Scholastic, 2010). Deftly working in early elementary curriculum concepts and vocabulary, the all-pro co-creators provide plenty of fun in the form of humorous asides from the students and thrilling maneuvers from bush pilot Frizzle at the throttle as they cover some new territory in science education. This one should be a staple of environmental education, Earth Day units, weather and climate study, and a fine motivator for school projects as well as big changes at home.

Earth Day for Earth's Children: Three Books for Earth Day, 2008

With Earth Day fast approaching, teachers and parents look for guides to help teach environmental awareness and good citizenship in keeping the earth habitable for all creatures. Some books are inspirational and motivational, some are educational, and some are resources for activities and organizations already in place.

Sheri Amsel's Everything Kids' Environment Book: Learn how you can help the environment-by getting involved at school, at home, or at play (Everything Kids Series) tends toward the latter type of book. Jam packed with information on such relevant subjects as acid rain, noise pollution, wind and solar power production, and endangered animals, this entry in the Everything Kids' series concentrates on hands-on activities in the here-and-now in which children can be easily involved in their own lives--planting trees and gardens, raising funds for projects, neighborhood and city-wide cleanups, and participation in local Earth Day events.

The book includes some "experiments" (really demonstrations) which bring home the effects of pollution and climate change, including a simulated oil spill--easily duplicated at home with water, olive oil, a feather, cat or dog fur, and liquid detergent--which brings home the implications of a a massive oil spill at sea. As a single-source guide to environmental instruction and activities, this one does a highly competent job.

Mara Conlon's cute little ring-bound Brainiac's Go Green Activity Book even comes with its own pen made from recycled materials and has plenty of activities which can be adapted to Earth Day lesson plans. There are puzzles--word scrambles, mazes, word searches--"green" quizzes, and guides for the reader to hands-on, at-home projects and pollution reducing tips, along with attention-getting facts about human effects upon the planet.

Conlon keeps a light, humorous touch throughout, making this book a guide to fun "green" activities. Here's a sample from the AIR CARE WIZARD'S QUIZ:

The ozone layer is
(a) a blanket of gas surrounding the Earth that helps protect us
(b) a fossil fuel
(c) lima beans

With a title that'll grab even the most science-averse kid, there's plenty of solid information wrapped up in a sometimes very funny package in Gas Trees and Car Turds: Kids' Guide to the Roots of Climate Change

Making the many properties of that invisible, odorless, seemingly innocuous gas called carbon dioxide understandable with good science and good humor is the main claim to fame for this short and snappy book. Kirk Johnson, Curator of the Denver Museum of Nature and Science, has written a kid-friendly guide to the carbon cycle and our place in it. Johnson brings it all home by showing how planting trees, choosing economical cars and appliances, and making other simple changes can reduce a family's carbon footprint substantially.