Children’s books have recently taken a green turn and it’s not just the contents that are eco-friendly. Recycled materials, sustainably sourced paper and vegetable-based inks are turning the print industry green.
And the stories tell an important green message too, covering topics from Fair Trade to climate change. Read on to discover some of our best picks.
In this article
Made with Care
Printed in Europe to cut down on unnecessary travel miles and made from 100 per cent recycled paper, Dorling Kindersley’s Made with Care books boast impressive green credentials. The titles, including Make it! and Earth Matters, have no jackets and are printed with non-hazardous vegetable-based inks on paper sourced from sustainable forests. Full marks.
Make it! and Earth Matters
With step-by-step projects to create things from what might otherwise be considered household waste, Make it! is a great buy for creative kids. The ‘make your own’ ideas are imaginative and resourceful with fun, brightly coloured illustrations. There are also plenty of reuse and recycling facts and tips to encourage your children to go green at no extra cost to you.
Earth Matters is a more educational read,delving into the environment, the natural world today and how humans have affected it.The facts and tips are presented in an easy-to-digest format, alongside some stunning photography – from the world’s driest deserts to underwater animal kingdoms. But perhaps the book’s best highlight is the images taken from space, which show how the Earth is changing and what we can do to help preserve it.
Make It! by Jane Bull, rrp £7.99 (Dorling Kindersley)
Earth Matters by David de Rothschild (ed.), rrp £17.99 (Dorling Kindersley)
Age: 7+
Growing Vegetables is Fun
Growing vegetables is fun is a new series of bookazines, which aims to teach children everything they need to know about growing organic vegetables. As you’d expect, there are plenty of fun gardening activities and challenges, but the book also touches on more serious subjects, such as chemicals and pesticides in food, healthy eating and food miles.
Growing vegetables is fun works best as a manual rather than a regular book. There are some large portions of uninterrupted text and it could benefit from a few more illustrations. But with its impressive content, the bookazine could be viewed as something of an investment buy – it’s certainly something that any child could refer back to again and again.
Growing Vegetables is Fun by Emma Cooper, rrp £9.99 (Dennis Publishing)
Age: 3+
Spud Goes Green
Spud Goes Green deals with an extremely serious topic in a humorous way, zipping through subjects such as climate change and landfill waste with fun illustrations and a charming narrator on the way. The story revolves around Spud, who sets out on a unique pursuit to save the planet.
Giles Thaxton’s expert storytelling makes it a great read and the book gets added green points for being printed on recycled paper, as well as using eco-friendly vegetable-based inks for printing.
Spud Goes Green has also won an additional stamp of approval from a group of 10 young judges, who awarded it with the Blue Peter award for the ‘best book with facts’.
Spud Goes Green by Giles Thaxton, rrp £4.99 (Egmont Press)
Age: 7+
Why should I bother about the planet?
Why should I bother about the planet? asks the big questions about global warming and considers how we can all help. The book works best as an informative guide to the main issues. Starting with an easy-to-read potted history, beginning with the industrial revolution, it examines everything from fair trade to biofuels.
This book doesn’t shy away from politics either, asking what governments can do about climate change and the threat to our planet. For extra green points, the book is printed on Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) approved paper and 20p from every copy goes to the environmental charity Friends of the Earth.
Why should I bother about the planet? by Susan Meredith, £6.99 (Usborne Publishing)
Age: 8+
Grow Organic, Eat Organic
Fun recipes, projects and activities make Grow Organic, Eat Organic a lively and proactive book for green-minded kids. Besides ‘how to’ information on sowing seeds and growing fruit and vegetables, the book explains what tools to use, and how to recycle your kitchen waste and make innovative containers.
With a bright design and clear step-by-step illustrations, the book is very child-friendly. But it doesn’t shy away from approaching more serious issues either, such as pesticides. Overall, this is a practical and accessible guide to all things organic.
Grow Organic, Eat Organic by Lone Morton, £4.99 (B small publishing)
Age: 7+