Buy Alive Again

Buy The Orange House

 

By Meghan Sullivan

Happy Earth Day! The day before it I went out for a walk and saw all the blossom on the trees. It reminded me that nature is so wonderful, and so vital for our lives. What would we do without the honey from the bees, or the wheat from the fields? But as cars whizzed by, I was also reminded that the way we live hurts nature. These are all lessons that we need to be teaching our children: it is their world now, and it will be theirs in the future too, so they need to learn how to keep it clean.

Teaching children about the environment is important, but how to do it in a way that doesn’t scare them? Reading could be the perfect place to start, especially if you choose a book which presents the issues in a hopeful way. In Alive Again, when a young boy sees that the rain has stopped falling, which leads to the wheat not growing, he questions whether it will come back. But, as the seasons turn, the rain comes back, and the wheat grows again. We realise that nothing is ever truly lost forever. It also teaches children an important lesson about how interlinked nature is. The wheat depends on the rain, and we depend on the wheat.

The Orange House is another book which explores difficult issues in a way that children will easily understand and

empathise with. In The Orange House the old houses are continually knocked down to make way for newer shinier houses. The only old house that remains is the little orange house. When builders turn up to demolish him, the new houses band together to protect him. The reason: the little orange house reminds them of a time when the air was much cleaner, where there were gardens full of fruit. The Orange House offers children a powerful lesson about the world’s future. As we keep building higher and higher, and using natural resources, we make the earth less clean and beautiful. Perhaps, adults could use the book to encourage children to think about the environment around them: is there fresh air and green spaces to play in? Or is it slowly disappearing.

Reading books that celebrate nature while also providing a space for children to question and debate environmental issues is a fantastic way to get children involved in these issues even if they’re really young. So, what are you waiting for? Go out for a hike with your children, and as you relax explore a good book.

Meghan Sullivan is the Publisher’s Assistant at Tiny Owl 

• Read this lovely review of The Orange House by Chitra Soundar
• Check out this fab review of Alive Again by Annie Everall

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