Gilbert has trouble coming up with ideas. First he couldn't think of a springtime poem, and now he needs an idea for an Earth Day project! Everyone else in Mrs. Byrd's class is busy working on posters about recycling and saving water and electricity, but Gilbert wants to do something original. A distressing class picnic inspires him, and he comes up with an Earth Day project that even Mrs. Byrd thinks is the best idea yet.
With vivid, lively illustrations and a timely story about how kids really can help the world around them, Diane deGroat shows readers of all ages that sometimes the simplest solutions are right in our own backyards!
My thoughts:
My children and I discovered Gilbert one year at Thanksgiving. Since then we have enjoyed each of the books from the series. Earth Day is later this month so when I saw this book sitting with the new books at our local library we decided to borrow it. Gilbert and his class decide to go on a picnic lunch because the weather is so nice, but when they get to the picnic spot the trees have been cut down, the grass is brown and there is trash all over the place. This inspires Mrs. Byrd to assign an Earth Day project about what the children can do to make the planet a better place. Gilbert's classmates come up with recycling, using a clothes line, riding a bike instead of walking, composting and turning out the lights but he wants to come up with something that is all his own. He has a hard time coming up with an original idea and gets frustrated but then it comes to him, he can plant a tree at the picnic spot.
I think doing things to save energy and reduce waste are so important. If we can get children in the mindset from an early age to recycle and conserve, we are taking a step towards living better and taking better care of the planet. I hate seeing things in the trash that could have been recycled or donated just because it is easier to throw them out, I like to get as much use out of each item as I can and try to take care to donate things that still can be used but that I know my family is done with. On trash day this week we had twice as much recycling as we did trash. I'd like to reduce how much waste we have period, weather trash or recycling, but I am proud of the strides we've made as a family to recycle the items we can in our community.
Product Details
Pub. Date: February 2011
Publisher: HarperCollins Children's Books
Format: Hardcover , 32pp
Age Range: 4 to 8
ISBN-13: 9780061765117
ISBN: 0061765112
We can reduce the trash by buying only the essential things which are necessary to us.
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