How to Save the Earth with Small Actions

 Earth Day may have been last week, but this book reminds us that Every Day is Earth Day – and that we can, by taking small actions, make the world a better place.

Be the Change 
by Rob Greenfield and Antonia Banyard 
96 pages; ages 8-12
Greystone Kids, 2022

When Rob Greenfield was 25, he wanted to change his life so that he could live in a more environmentally-friendly way. Step one: he wrote a list of positive changes he could make, and then set out to do one action every week. He started with small steps – eating fresh food instead of packaged foods, and even gave up his car. 

In this book he hopes to inspire kids to take positive actions that will help heal the world. In fact, it’s even subtitled Rob Greenfield’s Call to Kids: Making a Difference in a Messed-Up World. It’s divided into nine chapters that focus on stuff, waste, food waste, water, energy, money, transportation, and more. 
The first few pages of each chapter give information about that aspect in our daily lives. Take “stuff” for example. We’ve got so much, but how much is necessary? Really, how many toys does a kid need? And all that stuff is not making us happier.

Then Rob talks about his own adventures in becoming more ecologically activist: letting go of possessions, trading in his car for a bike, dumpster-diving to show how much good food is wasted.

What I like about this book: At the end of each chapter, Rob shares some ideas about things kids can do, and what others are doing to help make the environment healthier. Things like planting community fruit trees, and observing Buy Nothing Day. Instead of a luxury vacation, he proposes exploring local parks and museums – and, if you can, bike or take public transportation to get there. There are lists of small things kids can do to make a difference, such as help fix leaks and turning part of a grassy yard into a garden.

Thanks for dropping by today. On Monday we'll be hanging out at Marvelous Middle Grade Monday with other  bloggers. It's over at Greg Pattridge's blog, Always in the Middle, so hop over to see what other people are reading. Review copy provided by the publisher.

Explore Outdoors ~ Not a Dandelion

 

The earliest wildflower on our hill is this one. 

It may look like a dandelion...

• it's yellow
• it's shaggy

 But it's not a dandelion.

It's coltsfoot. 

Like the dandelion, coltsfoot is introduced. And like the dandelion, people use the leaves, flower and root. Instead of salad, fritters, and coffee, coltsfoot is used to treat coughs and sore throats.

Here's how to distinguish between them:

 

Dandelion leaves emerge before the flower; coltsfoot flowers emerge before the leaves.

Dandelion stems are green with tiny (almost imperceptible) hairs; coltsfoot stems are a bit grayer and look like they have brownish scales on them.

Dandelion flower heads have hair all over; coltsfoot flowers have a center of bumps. Like this one.

This week we're Going On a Lion Hunt ~ 

Dandelions, that is. Look for plants with shaggy yellow flowers. Then take a closer look.

• Stem: what color is it? how tall is it? does it have hairs?
• Leaves: what shape are they? how long? do they grow on the stem or only at the base? do they have smooth edges? are they notched?
• Flower: are the petals thin? are they thick? are they everywhere or is there a center?

Coltsfoot isn't the only dandelion fooler. Here are some others.

Inspiration along the Writing Journey

As we worked on Funky Fungi, Alisha and I discovered a couple of books that inspired us on our writing journey. They engaged our curiosity and prompted several conversations that led us to look more closely at the fungi surrounding us.

Entangled Life, by Merlin Sheldrake

You know it’s going to be a fun book when the first thing you read is “What is it like to be a fungus?” Merlin Sheldrake gives us a tour of the kingdom from a fungal point of view. If we want to understand how ecosystems work, we need to understand the mycorrhizal fungi beneath our feet. Fungi challenge the way we think about evolution and intelligence, even what makes an individual. 

In one chapter Merlin takes us on a hunt for truffles; in the next we watch mycelium solving a maze. My favorite, though, was the dive into lichens. Lichens are relationships between algae and fungi, but what exactly do the fungi do? Then there’s the connection of fungi with roots, and mycelial webs connecting entire forests (and other plants) into an internet of sorts. Throughout, he cites research, both past and ongoing, that contribute to our current understanding of fungi. Underlying it all is the caveat that what we think we know now will undoubtedly change as we learn more. 

Finding the Mother Tree, by Suzanne Simard 

I picked up a copy of this book the day it hit the bookstore. I love how Suzanne Simard took me right into her world of trees. Born and raised into a logging world (the rainforests of British Columbia, Canada), she spent her days learning about – and from – the trees surrounding her. In this memoir, she writes about her work in forestry and her research in the forests. Suzanne’s language transported me deep into the northwest forests. Reading it on my porch on warm summer days, I could almost smell the pine needles and the earthy soil of the rainforest.

The book’s focus is Dr. Simard’s studies on how trees communicate through underground mycelial networks, how they care for each other and mount defenses against natural enemies. I particularly liked the sections where she detailed the methods of her scientific inquiry. She does not gloss over the hard work: fencing study sites, transplanting trees, digging, watering, camping out, even the failures due to weather and other elements. And there were plenty of failures – that’s part of the scientific method, right? 

Nor does she gloss over how the scientific community responds to new ideas that challenge the status quo. By the end, I gained a better understanding about the connectedness of the “Mother Tree” that nurtures the forest. More important, I gained appreciation for how important these underground connections are for the survival of both forest and human. 

Remember to check out our Funky Fungus Fridays over at my author Facebook page, and Alisha’s #FungiFriday posts on Twitter

Check back next month for another post about our book-writing journey.  Funky Fungi, 30 Activities for Exploring Molds, Mushrooms, Lichens, and More is part of the Chicago Review Press “Young Naturalists” series. You can find out more about our book at the publisher’s website. It will hit bookstore shelves in two months, but you can pre-order it at your favorite local bookstore, or online at Bookshop.org