Discover Top Posts Tagged with #environmental theme

SP iFoody – Responsive Organic Food Shopify Theme SP iFoody - Responsive Organic Food Shopify Theme Download Now

#Bootstrap 3 #custom style #environmental theme #food shop #fresh #mobile friendly #modern #organic farm #organic farm shop #organic food #organic shop #responsive #rtl support #shopify 2 #shopify theme

Naturelle Pro : ThemeIsle Environmental WordPress Theme - on WordPress Theme Review

http://www.wordpressthemereviewdesk.com/naturelle-pro-themeisle/

Naturelle Pro : ThemeIsle Environmental WordPress Theme

Introducing Naturelle Pro : An Environmental premium WordPress Theme from ThemeIsle. Before we talk any further about this eco green theme let me tell you that it is a generic business template. Hence, any business organization or foundation can use it to spread their information. We have seen...

#Environmental Theme #Green Theme #Nature Theme

EARTH DAY 2010!

There are plenty on non-fiction books for children on the market these days covering everything earth related from recycling to global warming, getting the point across with facts, crafts and mazes. Any bookstore or library you walk into this month should have a display of some or all of these books.

Having a literary focus on my blog, I will leave the reading of these books up to you. I want to take this day to feature some books that I have loved for a long time, before I even knew I needed to save the earth (when I was a kid, environmentalism was called "ecology" and the only public expression of a drive for consciousness in this area was a commercial with a Native America standing in a landfill with a tear rolling down his face...)

Some are based in reality, some are fantasy. I also want to feature some new books along the same lines that I have had the pleasure of reading and reviewing over the past two years.

April being National Poetry Month, I have to start with The Tree That Time Built, a poetic celebration of nature, science and imagination, selected by Mary Ann Hoberman and Linda Winston with illustrations by Barbara Fortin. To inspire a fascination with, love of and respect for nature in your children from a young age, this book is the place to start. It comes with a CD of the many of poets reading their work.

My first exposure to being environmentally conscious as a child was through the picture books of Bill Peet, winner of the Caldecott Honor Award in 1990 for Bill Peet: An Autobiography. Animals, circuses and trains almost always played the starring roles in the books by this former employee of Walt Disney Studios. A man of many talents, Peet was most often the story editor on many of the animated movies that make up the foundation of classic Disney films. His name can be seen in the opening credits for Alice in Wonderland, Peter Pan, Sleeping Beauty, Fantasia, and 101 Dalmations and there is something Disney-esque in his story telling and illustration style. Peet's books are always rich with both story and character and he often gets a message across in the most subtle of ways. In these two books, he employs realistic and fantastical settings to tell his stories. Written in 1966, Farewell to Shady Glade is the story

of animals who find their homes being plowed under and hop a train to a better place. The dedication in the book reads, "TO RACHEL CARSON with the hope that the new generationwill carry on her all-important work toward preserving what is left of our natural world." The Wump World, which was published in 1970, a year before Dr Seuss' environmentally themed book, The Lorax, has a plot line that is echoed in the Pixar movie WALL-E. The peaceful Wumps inhabit a naturally pristine world until the Pollutians from another planet invade in search of new natural resources to consume. The Wumps find an underground cavern to hide in as the Pollutians wreak their havoc, paving over their world. Finally, when there is nothing left to consume and the air is too polluted to breathe, they leave. The Wumps break through the crust of asphalt and walk for days until they find nature emerging again.

Author and illustrator Lynne Cherry" has been been an advocate for the earth since this book was published in 1990. About to chop down a kapok, a worker stops to take a rest under the shade of the tree. While he sleeps, the animals of the rain forest come to him, each with a different reason why he should not chop down the tree and destroy their habitats. Told simply and illustrated beautifully with a naturalist's eye, The Great Kapok Tree is the perfect example of a children's book that manages to engage, teach and entertain at the same time.

Also written in 1990, Chris Van Allsburg's Just a Dream is less subtle in it's message, but every bit as effective. Walter is a litter bug who cannot understand why the girl next door would want to plant a tree for her birthday and cannot be bothered to sort the recycling from the garbage when he takes the trash out. When he falls asleep, a dream takes him from one scene of devastation and waste to the next, each one depicted over a two page spread. From a forest of trees being chopped down to make toothpicks to a garish hotel on the top of Mt Everest to an overfished ocean, Walter wakes up with a new understanding of the world. As usual, Van Allsburg's illustrations are magical and

And, last but not least, one reality based and two fantasy based YA novels from the last year that have environmental themes and are great reads!

Operation Redwood by S. Terrell French was also the winner of the 2010 Green Earth Book Award for Chidlren's Fiction. French tells the story of Julian Carter-Li, a San Francisco native who stumbles into an adventure that includes trying to save a stand of old grove redwood trees north of the city. French's characters, Julian especially, are so well written and human that you almost forget to worry about the trees. I look forward to many more books from this debut author, environmentally themed or otherwise.

Fern Verdant & the Silver Rose by debut author Diana Leszczynski, a Green Earth Honor Book as well as a Smithsonian Notable Children's Book for 2008. Daughter of botanists, Fern Verdant is a young girl who, after her mother disappears, discovers that the ability to talk to plants runs in her family, sending her on a journey to rescue her mother from a nefarious baddie and his thugs. The fantastical and funny details that Leszczynski packs into this book make it hard to put down. Kids may not get a laugh out of the name of Fern's new school, Joan Baez Middle School, but they will be laughing at other details like the boat load of orphans and NITPIC, the Nedlaw Institute for the Prevention of Insanity in Children. This book comes out in paperback in May of 2010.

Of the three chapter books listed her, Toby Alone by Timothée de Fombelle, translated by Sarah Ardizzione, is perhaps the most subtle in its story and message. A planned trilogy, Toby Alone sets the story of the life and possible death of the Tree in motion. Toby and the race of people he is part of are all less than 2 millimeters tall, smaller than some bugs that also inhabit the Tree. Toby and his mother and father, scientist and inventor Sim Lolness, are banished to the lower branches of the Tree after his father uncovers information that shows that the Tree's resources are not limitless and also refuses to share the details of an invention (an engine, but never stated outright as such) he has made that could revolutionize the way work is done in the Tree. From exile, it is a short step to prison for the family, a fate which Toby manages to escape in this first book. By far, one of the most suspenseful, well crafted books I have read and definitely on my Top 10 list of best books read ever. Toby Alone is available in paperback and book two, The Secrets of the Tree, is due out in August of 2010.

#Environmental Theme #Earth Day

Fern Verdant and the Silver Rose by Diana Leszczynski, 263 pp RL 4

Fern Verdant & the Silver Rose by first time author Diana Leszczynski (subject of my first ever author interview) is one of those rare books that, thanks to an intriguing title and artwork by the amazingly talented and prolific Brandon Dorman, illustrator of one of my all-time favorite jackets for one of the best books written last year, Newbery Honor winner Savvy by Ingrid Law, jumps off the shelf and into your hands. Once it's there, thanks to Diana Leszczynski's wonderful writing, you just can't put it down.

As I read Fern Verdant & the Silver Rose bits and pieces reminded me of so many other wonderful books that I have loved. Like the main character of Savvy, Mississippi Beaumont, Fern is the recipient of a unique gift on her thirteenth birthday. The wickedly evil, child hating antagonists in the book reminded me of some of the best aspects of Lemony Snicket's Series of Unfortunate Events as well as al most everything by Roald Dahl. The Dickensian names (you can't beat "Fern Verdant' for it's internal rhyme, either) and occasional aside to parents (Joan Baez Middle School in Fern's new hometown of Nedlaw, Oregon, had me and my husband laughing out loud one night) are also reminiscent of Snicket and Dahl. And, the boatload of orphans with attitude, while definitely Snicket-like also called to mind the heroes of Trenton Lee Stewart's Mysterious Benedict Society and it's sequels. Whatever similarities there are to other works of young adult fiction, Diana Leszczynski's descriptively lush writing and ability to weave a suspenseful plot with rich characters makes Fern's story completely new and winning from start to finish.

The child of boatnists, Fern's father, Olivier Verdant, is an expert on ferns (thus her name) who originates from France and her mother, Lily Verdant, is a world renowned rescuer of endangered plant species. Because of her expertise, Lily travels often and Fern grows to resent this, wondering why her mother even bothered to have a kid if she wasn't going to be around much. Because of his discovery of a new species of fern, the family packs up and moves across the country to Nedlaw (thank you to my husband for pointing out to me that "Nedlaw" is "Walden" spelled backwards - another little inside joke for us adults...) so that Olivier can study this fern more thoroughly, separating Fern from her best friend, also a daughter of botanists, Ivy. Things go from bad to worse for Fern as her mother departs on yet another rescue mission right before her thirteenth birthday then disappears, seemingly washed out to sea as she tried to rescue the valuable and rare Silver Rose. Grandmamma Lisette arrives from Paris to help her son and granddaughter through this difficult time with her buttery homemade chocolate croissants and comforting hugs, but Fern stumbles into messy social situation at school that is only made worse by her birthday.

Things begin to change, if not necessarily improve for Fern when she finally turns thirteen and, through a series of funny mishaps, realizes that she can communicate with plants. She can hear their thoughts. She can hear the grass scream as she jumps on it. More importantly, she can talk to the plants and they to her, which is how she receives a long distance message from her mother that starts her on a journey that will end on the other side of the world. But, not without the interference of some pretty (comically) bad guys first. When her father sees her talking to the Weeping Willow tree in the yard, he and Grandmamma decide that Fern needs serious help and he puts her in NITPIC - the Nedlaw Institute for the Treatment and Prevention of Insanity in Children - under the care of the hypnosis-crazy Dr Marita Von Svenson. This is exactly where Henry Saagwalla, the evil, nature hating mastermind behind the disappearance of Lily Verdant wants Fern.

After Fern's stormy escape from NITPIC, aided by some enormous Douglas Fir trees lining the driveway, she sets off on an odyssey of sorts that reunites her with her fellow NITPIC inmate the orphan Francesca, her fourteen year old bother Anthony, captain of the Porpoise, and a handful of orphans who refuse to trust Fern because she has parents. The crew of the Porpoise is in possession of a Petal from the Silver Rose, hoping they can find the rose it came from and sell it for enough money remain independently at sea. Fortunately for Fern, she can communicate with the Petal, which comes in handy more than once. The climax of the book takes place on the extremely verdant island of Sri Lanka where Lily is being held captive, in a coma, and where the evil genius has a lair worthy of any James Bond baddie. Fern does her best to rescue her mother and the Silver Rose while at the same time keeping their powers secret for, as she learns early on, anyone in possession of the power to communicate with plants will lose that power if they tell another person about it. She experiences failure in one of these areas and is deeply saddened but responds to her failure and loss with a wonderful turn of maturity and compassion that makes you love her all the more.

Diana Leszczynski creates a brave. conflicted, determined character in Fern. I barely scratched the surface describing the the amazing opportunities that come Fern's way once she can communicate with plants. While reading Fern Verdant & the Silver Rose I began to look at the natural world around me a little bit differently as I walked my dogs every morning. There is one point in the book when Fern is scooped up by a Eucalyptus tree somewhere in Northern California. She spends a night and a day in the leafy arms of the tree (who happens to have an Australian accent) being cared for by it. Leszczynski's writing is so visual that I found I could see Fern and her tree home perfectly in my mind's eye. I never had a treehouse as a kid and always wanted one, I still do. I think that may have caused me to be especially entranced by this part of the book. Also, one of my favorite characters in Fern Verdant & the Silver Rose I have yet to mention is Andrew Wedgie, a devoted canvaser for Trees Pleese, an organization that tries to call attention to the plight of trees. Andrew makes the bad decision to ring the doorbell of Henry Saagwalla who kidnaps him and gives him serums that make him follow orders without question and gradually turn into a tree. Before Lily learns his name she calls him the Chia Man because his hair is green and growing like an alfalfa sprout afro. Is Andrew a good guy or a bad guy? A tree or a man?

This book could easily be marketed as an "Environmentally Friendly" "Green" book. In fact, Leszczynski describes, through Fern's eyes, Lily in this way; she "was beautiful, but she dressed with no regard for fashion. She wore shoes with heels that went down instead of up, and clothes that were baggy and bland. Lily had to know exactly how each person who made her clothes was treated in their place of work. How much were they paid? Were their working conditions safe and sanitary? Lily needed to know that they were treated fairly in order to buy their goods. Shopping with Lily was excruciatingly embarrassing for Fern." Leszczynski walks a fine line between poking fun at and presenting lifestyle choices, like being the family's vegetarianism, that are made out of respect for the earth and nature. The Verdant's are not kooky and they are not hippies but people with solid reasons for why they lead the lives they do. Of course Fern, who is at an age when most want to fit in instead of stand out in a crowd, will find Lily's choices aggravating at times. This book could have gone in such a different direction and been a dry, dogmatic primer on how to be earth friendly. Instead, it is full of adventure and humor and lush with descriptive details about the natural world that surrounds us. Hopefully through these descriptions readers will be enlightened to new ways of looking at and treating the world around them, just as Fern is educated and enlightened by her new found ability to talk to plants.

Fern Verdant & the Silver Rose will be coming out in paperback in May of 2010. Hopefully there will be a new Fern Verdant adventure hitting the shelves at the same time! I can't wait to read more and travel to new places with Fern - maybe even to the Tunisian garden where the teal Tulip is crying out for help?

Readers who liked this book might also enjoy:

Operation Redwood by S Terrell French

Journey to the River Sea by Eva Ibbotson

Toby Alone by Timothée de Fombelle