Tag Archives: ecology

One Little Bag, by Henry Cole (author & illustrator)

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An absolutely charming wordless picture book describing that long life of our main character – a paper bag! Henry Cole, at his best, delights us with the very beginning of a life of a bag, as a tree. The picture shows the tree looking vibrant and content in a forest, and then through the logging process, milling, manufacturing, and into a grocery story.From there, it really becomes loved in a family home and used as a lunch bag for a young boy to carry his sandwiches to school.His father draws a small red heart on the bag, which is later used with the boy’s flashlight at night, goes camping and holds the marshmellows, follows him as he ages and holds a ring he gives to his love, ect. By the end of our story the bag is appropriately used to hold a small seedling which is planted back into the earth by our main character and his son.

A lovely story for earthday, recycle/reuse, over consumption, generational stories, lifecycle and more. Recommended book for your library!

Here is Henry Cole’s website: https://www.henrycole.net/main.php

Let’s Visit the Evergreen Forest

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Let’s Visit the Evergreen Forest is an introduction to the plants and animals that are part of this particular biome. Pictures are engaging and accompanying text boxes have extra information. A map details where this biome is located. And, information is presented in simple terms, with a glossary to explain the more difficult words.

This book leads the reader to believe that an evergreen forest biome is simply a stand of towering trees, which is incorrect. There are many parts to this ecosystem, some of which are pictured but not discussed in the text. Meadows, wetlands and immature stands of trees as well as the mature forest are all part of a healthy evergreen forest biome. Different animals thrive in different parts of that biome and that is not described in the text. I would not recommend this book for purchase unless it is used in conjunction with instruction on all aspects of an evergreen biome.

Drops of Life

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The first thing I noticed were the beautiful illustrations in this book. It is was initially drew my attention.

Secondly, I was drawn in by the message described on the back pages.  Here I learned about an organization called ENO (Environment Online) that helps spread awareness and knowledge about sustainable development.  This online environment allows students around the world to share their learning with our global community.  This piqued my curiosity and thought this would be a wonderful resource for teachers and students.

And lastly, once again from the back page, I learned that this story is a well-known children’s play that has been performed in over eighty countries.

With all these positive attributes, I felt I really should have liked this book more; however, I found it to be choppy and unremarkable.  It is easy to envision this as a play by the way it is written, but it makes for stilted reading.  Perhaps something was lost in the translation, but as I was reading through this I couldn’t help but feel as if the dialogue is something that the students themselves would have created.  For this reason, I think students may like it as a play, but will have a difficult time being engaged for reading pleasure.