Children learn to protect the environment and respect nature through recycling, home energy conservation and neighborhood clean-ups. Through accompanying Bible verses, they are encouraged to be responsible stewards of God's creation.
Review:
I was excited to be given this book to review because of the valuable lesson of recycle-reuse-renew, something I’m already teaching my children who are 7, 9, and 12 years old. We read the book together, marveling at the soft, bright colors the artist chose. We especially liked that the brother and sister were working together to care for their environment. We all appreciated the tips for conservation, and agreed that it is our job to care for the world around us, but all of us struggled with some of the inconsistencies throughout the story.
While talking about chemicals polluting our water supply, there was a picture of the kids swimming in a pool which requires chemicals to keep it clean, and the scripture on that page references a stream in the mountains. It shows the children unplugging their Wii to conserve electricity, and then depicts them watching a TV as old as I am, with dials to change the channel – not Wii compatible or as energy efficient as newer models. We live in a big city with lots of bright lights, yet the book looks at that as a bad thing (listed alongside poisonous smog) because we can’t see the moon and stars, and where we live in Colorado, it is illegal to collect rainwater for your garden, so we talked about other ways we could conserve that are relevant to us.
My oldest son questioned why the author used scriptures that have nothing to do with caring for the planet. Good question. This book is clearly written for Christians and I’m all for using scripture when teaching, but I was as puzzled as my son.
I give this book 2 out of 5 stars.
I feel as if I’m starting off on the wrong foot with this as my first book review for Book Divas. I rarely give negative reviews, but as a reviewer and a believer, you’ll always get my honest opinion.
Over all, my children liked the book and it was a good discussion starter. While I appreciated the author’s heart for teaching children valuable lessons about caring for creation, I would not intentionally choose this book as that tool. I will say that this is the first book I’ve read by Christy Baldwin, and I would give her other books a chance.
About Christy Baldwin:
Writing has been a passion of Christy's since she was very young. As a child, she loved to write stories for her grandfather and poems just for fun. She lives in Mason, Ohio with her family and is active in church, Boy Scouts, Girls Scouts and volunteering with various organizations. Christy has a bachelor's degree in Elementary Education from Cedarville University and a master's degree in Special Education from the University of Scranton. She is a stay at home mom who enjoys spending time with her kids and being involved in their schools. Her previous children's titles include Nine Things Nathan Noticed at Night and Remembering Wilma.
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The Book Diva's received this book through Tomoson.com for review. All opinions are that of the reviewer. We are dedicated to providing our HONEST opinion about books, products, whatever the case may be. We were not compensated for this review.
2 comments:
Hannah, thanks for taking the time to read and review Christy's book.
:D
No prob! We were happy to!
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