Green Book Review: The New 50 Simple Things Kids Can Do to Save the Earth

A long while back I read the old 50 Simple Things Kids Can Do to Save the Earth and it rocked. Now there’s a fresh edition out sure to inspire a whole new generation of green.

Product: The New 50 Simple Things Kids Can Do to Save the Earth by EarthWorks Group’s John Javna (plus some kids) published by Andrews McMeel Publishing

Cost: $8.83 at Amazon.com

Reviewers: Myself and my eight-year-old Cedar

What I like about the book:

The book was printed on recycled paper with soy ink!

Kids were involved in writing this book. The forward letter to kids is, in fact, by 15 year old Sophie Javna (John’s daughter). She and some other green youth worked as co-authors on this book so there’s actual kid flavor to it.

The old version was good, but this version offers suggestions and tips that meet current needs. I.e the green issues we’re all still working on, Internet resources, and updated statistics.

The language in the book spoke to, not down to kids; very respectful of green youth.

Each of the 50 tips has a “did you know” area with facts about the eco-topic at hand. Then there’s a “what you can do” section, followed by a “see for yourself” or learn more section. I like that it’s the same throughout because smaller kids know what to expect.

There are extras! Besides the 50 tips the back of the book offers 7 fun eco-experiments like how to make paper and a visual smog damage experiment. There are also 4 quick quizzes that test kids knowledge about green topics.

The website for this book ROCKS. There is WAY too much good stuff at the website to discuss, I’d be here typing all day. Note: You will love it, your kids will love it, enough said. Visit today.

My son LOVED this book (minus the web stuff – see below in negatives). He thought the tips were great and could very much understand what the book was telling him. In fact, and this is a true story, he stayed up until 1am asking me to read tip after tip the first night we got the book. He couldn’t get enough and wanted to try all the experiments in this book. The next day at his free school he walked in and started giving speeches to all the other kids and staff related to all sorts of eco-facts he learned in the book. Now, granted, Cedar is around green all the time. We breathe it in at my house, so he’s already big on this topic BUT I think any child would like this book and gain valuable eco-tips.

What I don’t love about the book:

Too many web shenanigans – while I DO like that websites and web resources were included, it’s almost too much in this book. The long urls included confused my eight-year old, although I suspect an older kids would find them easier to navigate. For example; instead of saying, “Visit Powerhousekids.com” they write urls like this, “Find air leaks! Some pointers: powerhousekids.com/stellent2/groups/public/documents/pub/phtv_se_we_gs_000529.hcsp” HOLY! I’m not even sure I typed that in correctly. I see a couple of problems with this. One, little kids (like my son) are overwhelmed by this long url. Two, these links, which pepper the text will possibly be outdated quickly and that will really frustrate people.

My suggestion would be to NOT use so many links throughout the book, but to include a good resource list of links at the back of the book. Less distracting.

No end-of-book index - The front of the book does offer a number by number list of topics; i.e. tip 1, “Recycle Glass page 22″ However, some of the topics are obscure in title like, “It’s the Law page 87″ which really, might mean anything. If you wanted to look up all the topics in this book related to “Garbage” there’s no index to look it up in.

Overall score:

Four out of five happy little trees.

The web stuff (long urls) were super distracting and the book should have an index so when kids say, hey, find that page about so and so, we can. However, my son adored this book – it’s all he wants to read currently and he told me that he’d tell his friends to read it. This book will provide weeks, not just hours of fun and learning, plus it’s very well-priced. I highly recommend picking The New 50 Simple Things Kids Can Do to Save the Earth up for your kids.