ecobites.com

Making your life greener - one bite at a time.

A kids book - Spud Goes Green. Giles Thaxton, the author, is clearly a man who knows his stuff.

Is a book about one boy's attempts to go green. This is a highly engaging story and provides lots of practical activities, such as building a bird house, for children to get involved in.

Spud Goes Green has won the Blue Peter Book Awards 'Best Book with Facts' Category.

The iconic children's TV show, which started in 1958, makes three awards each year, the winners being chosen by a panel of 10 viewers from around the UK.

Written in the style of a diary, it charts Spud's attempt to stick to his New Year Resolution - to go green. He learns to grow food, recycle rubbish, and look after wildlife...but can he be green all year long?

Another great 'green' kid's book is - I Can Save the Earth by Alison Inches(author) and Illustrated by Viviana Garofoli

Meet Max the Little Monster. He is a cute, furry green monster who is an environmental nightmare. Among other things, he leaves on all the lights, keeps his computer plugged in, blasts the TV, hoards his old toys and uses so much toilet paper it clogs the toilet until finally, his excessive ways cause a power outage.

With no TV to watch, computer to play on, video games to play with, Max finds there is a whole big world outside that he can make a difference in the environment. A kid-friendly glossary of terms is included in the back of the book.Recommended for kid's aged 4 -6

Beyond the Brink by peter Andrews and published by ABC Books.

Peter Andrews repeatedly stresses the importance of trees. Not only do trees make rain, and consequently, vegetation loss leads to less rainfall, trees and other plants significantly modify the climate, meaning they can reduce the effects of global warming by cooling the atmosphere. Andrews does not believe that carbon dioxide in the atmosphere plays a significant part in global warming. However, he does state that it could be entirely eliminated within a few years by encouraging the growth of more vegetation, both trees, for the long term, and fast-growing-plants in the short term. A read of this book will convince many readers of the negative effects of vegetation clearing and the manifold benefits of trees.

Build a Yurt;: The Low - Cost Mongolian Round House
by Len Charney

A yurt is a circular latticework dwelling with slanted roofbeams whirling to the skylight and outward to the stars. It's adaptable to any climate, and can be portable or permanent. It is spacious yet at the same time cosy and secure. Yurts are a natural for rustic settings and have enough charm to delight even the most indifferent house admirers. In this inspiring and well-illustrated book the author reveals some trade secrets: shortcuts that he has developed as a veteran yurt builder, and helpful hints on how to make the most out of materials at hand. The easy-to-read directions on how to build extra large skylights and yurts, + the decorating ideas, make Building a Yurt a pleasuable book to read.

Too Many Magpies by Elizabeth Baines

Can we believe in magic and spells? Can we put our faith in science?

A young mother married to a scientist fears for her children’s safety as the natural world around her becomes ever more uncertain. Until, that is, she meets a charismatic stranger who seems to offer a different kind of power… But is he a saviour or a frightening danger? And, as her life is overturned, what is happening to her children whom she vowed to keep safe? Why is her son Danny now acting so strangely?

In this haunting, urgent and timely novel, Elizabeth Baines brings her customary searing insight to the problems of sorting our rational from our irrational fears and of bringing children into a newly precarious world. In prose that spins its own spell she exposes our hidden desires and the scientific and magical modes of thinking which have got us to where we are now.