The Young Adult Eco Movement

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Andy Mulligan: How I wrote Trash in 10 days straight

The author of Trash on how some stories are biters that you just can’t shake off – and how he watched the movie adaptation by Stephen Daldry through a mist of tears

An interesting supplement to add after reading Trash.

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Derf Backderf’s website. One of the more interesting authors in the text set

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A few tips

Click here for information on you can help the environment. Each project relates to what students should have learned from the text set. Remeber, one spark can lead to an explosion of passion. 

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I wonder if Walmart is hiring nighttime bag boys.

Derf Backderf, Trashed

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An ode to the crap job of all crap jobs.

Derf Backderf, Trashed

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With the right key you can bust the door wide open. Because nobody's going to open it for you.

Andy Mulligan, Trash

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I speak for the trees, for the trees have no tongues.

Dr. Seuss

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It's not about what it is, it's about what it can become.

Dr. Seuss

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Wrapping up the text is the most likely the most famous of the books, Dr. Seuss’ The Lorax. This children’s book illustrates the issues of maintaining the environment through the Lorax, who speaks for the trees. The book also shows how a huge corporation that does not care about how it makes money can hurt the environment by not giving back to the environment it takes from. 

The story begins with a young boy paying the Once-ler to hear the story of the Lorax. The boy hears of a world that was once covered with trees and how beautiful nature once was. 

The Lorax is the last book in the set because out of the rest of the books, it has a somber plot, but instills the most hope in the reader. Also, adding more emphasis on the issue of maintaining the environment because the voice of Dr. Seuss weighs so much for so many readers, young or old, this book puts the perfect ending to this text set. 

For a little extra entertainment value, here is the link for the original TV special from 1972: The Lorax.

Without giving away any spoilers, students should be prompted to discuss the ending and how a movement can be sparked by one person’s passion. 

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Introducing the first of the children’s books in the text set is Joel Harper’s All the Way to the Ocean. This book provides a much-needed sense of hope anyone reading this text set will need. An interesting way to go about reading this book is to watch a short video that portrays the book. Click here for the link.

Older readers usually stray away from reading below their age, but a book like All the way to the Ocean provides so much inspiration for anyone who chooses to read it. The story follows two friends James and Isaac as they learn about how their choices can affect the greater environment. James tosses a wrapper and bottle in the gutter and does not think that it will go All the Way to the Ocean. Isaac tries to explain the issues with littering. And following the trend of most children’s books, a talking animal offers guidance; for James and Isaac, a crane from the coastline comes to their aid. 

A discussion revolving around this book would entail how anyone can change the negative effects on the environment. It’s important for students to learn that even at a young age, they can make a massive impact on the world. 

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Rounding out the last of the graphic novels within the text set is Tracking Trash: Flotsam, Jetsam, and the Science of Ocean Motion by Loree Griffin Burns. Burns only conveys and simplifies the information collected by oceanographer Dr. Curtis Ebbesmeyer. The doctor is not collecting typical news numbers, but actual research data. 

Much like the other two graphic novels in the text set, the author finds a great way mixture of text and images. The images in the novel prove the most useful tool for students as the novel explains different concepts, so the images simplify the text, while also engaging the reader. 

One of the lower impacting books in the text set, Tracking Trash provides a brief introduction to a different area of how trash affects our environment. In addition, it adds big names in the field to help the reader understand the importance of maintaining our ecosystem. Compared to the other books, this one focuses on how the oceans would be affected by not taking care of the Earth. 

A simple discussion could be about how to prevent or minimize dumping in the ocean’s water. Or, the students could discuss the benefits of switching the materials of everyday materials, so their impact on the environment is decreased. 

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Adding another graphic novel to text is Derf Backderf’s Trashed. Trashed did not follow a specific method of writing. Trashed is fiction, but has been influenced by Derf’s time as a garbage man. The graphic novel does a great but interesting job of conveying information about garbage. Throughout the novel, real facts are thrown at the reader with some slight humor, usually dark. 

JB, an early-twenties college dropout, lives a life of foreshadowing. One morning, his mother wakes him and tells him to get a job and take the trash out, while taking the trash out by the curb, the bag breaks. JB thinks not to clean up the mess, but to let the garbage man clean up his mess. Next, JB finds an ad asking for temporary help; the following scene is JB riding on a garbage truck. He even realizes what his life has come to as he yells, “H-h-holy crap!”

Readers will also find an interesting aspect of this graphic novel is that Trash is a character. Essentially, the other characters, even JB, are used to tell the story of trash. The topic of the graphic novel becomes how we deal with trash and how we do not. This character leaves the reader thinking how people can create a never-ending supply of garbage every second, day, week, and year.

Backderf tells the reader about JB’s life as a garbage man. During this process, Backderf adds in facts from Columbia University and EPA to turn a graphic novel into a serious piece of writing. Backderf also makes this graphic novel understandable for a younger audience as he bolds the important facts within the text bubbles. In addition to making his writing more serious, he makes it more interesting. No one would think to have a former garbage man write a book about the state of garbage in the country with real numbers and facts to support his claim. However, the reader should never feel once that he or she is being forced to feel bad by the author by all of the garbage facts. Instead, Backderf finds a great balance between fiction and nonfiction with a healthy splash of humor. Trash provides a funny, educational, and shocking read.

Seeing the cover of the book already makes the reader think of questions, but diving into the panels and text, a reader’s understanding of garbage has been debunked. No one would expect actually getting numbers behind the garbage he or she tosses away without a second thought.

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For the fourth book in the text set, Margarita Engle has provided us with Silver People: Voices from the Panama Canal. Unlike any the previous books, Engle has written Silver People in a poetic style rather the usual paragraph to paragraph. Adding a novel of this nature, keeps students drawn in because of the unique nature of the book. 

Engle captures the emotions stirred up by the construction of the Panama Canal in a beautiful poetic nature. She includes the disturbance of the animals living in the area to the workers constructing the canal. She blends together very different voices. She tells the experiences in chronological order to the creation of the canal. 

Mateo, a young teenager from Cuba, is drawn to Panama because of the promises of wealth for the construction of the canal. However, he soon discovers that the life he thought he would live was only a lie, only painful labor awaited him. Following the tread of high school age literature, Mateo soon falls for Anita, a herb girl. He also builds relationships with Henry, a worker from Jamaica, and Augusto, a Puerto Rican geologist. 

Students will find an interesting discussion on the topic of Engle focusing her story on a non-Black character in a time where the black population was subject to most of the unfair conditions of the Panama Canal. 

This novel will bring students to understand the different types of voices affected by such a massive environmental project. 

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The third novel in the text set is Empty by Suzanne Weyn. Empty is a young adult novel that again takes place in the near future. However, in this world, the world has depleted its source of fossil fuel. Weyn focuses on the particular group of teenagers’ lives after a category six hurricane hits the East Coast. 

Gwen Jones a young girl who does not lack experience with suffering as her mother abandoned her and older brother Luke. The siblings have managed to survive without an adult looking out for them because of Luke’s business of embezzling gas. Oddly enough, they never drew the attention of the police or child services. Gwen forms a more realistic bond with the readers as she begins to dress in Goth-style clothes, but soon develops a crush on the star high school football player Tom Harris. And of course, a high school drama cannot be complete without a love triangle. 

Tom Harris has his own experience with suffering as his father recently passing leaving him and his mother. Tom fills his time with football and hopes to ask out cheerleader Niki Barton. However, Niki has only experienced hardship when it comes to material items. Her family is one of the few wealthy families in the novel. And like many popular girls in high school, Niki is expected to dress, act, and date a certain way. 

The stereotypical high school teenagers help the reader relate to some extent and adds some humor to keep the reader drawn in without getting too upset about the reality of the novel. 

After the hurricane’s aftermath and all of the fuel gone, the world seems as if it is ending. But, life finds a way. The journey of the survivors starts as they must find a way to live without oil. 

Weyn presents an issue of dependence on oil on the global scale. She focuses on the everyday alterations everyone will have to make in order to survive. How will people today live without simple objects such as hot showers, cars, or heat? Weyn also addresses social issues within human survival such as riots and helping each other. She creates a real story. 

Students can find discussion with how to live life now with less dependence on fuel and oil. Or even explore how if the world were to experience an event like the one in the novel, how would they react and what their course of action would be. 

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The second book of the text is Eyes Wide Open: Going Behind the Environmental Headlines by Paul Fleischman. Eyes Wide Open is a young adult graphic novel. The novel tackles the issues of population, consumption, energy, food, and climate by using history, psychology, sociology, and the role of money to help the reader to understand the subject was very interesting. Fleischman dives into how to explain general environmental issues and human reactions to these issues with a focus on the population’s defense mechanisms such as denialism and regression. 

The book also connects to a young audience through several methods, one being the creation of #globaltl. The hashtag helped teacher and librarians connect students through the aid of online collaborative projects.

Fleischman’s writing style definitely finds the mixture of young adult literature and journalism. He uses simple to help the reader learn the facts of the issues. In addition, he does not just start by throwing facts at the reader, but levels with them on a personal level. He begins the book by telling a story of how he noticed dead bees in his driveway and contemplating the reasoning for their death. If it was not already clear, he goes ahead tells the reader the goal of the book…,” to give you a foundation under your decisions.” Fleischman gives advice on how people should analyze what information heard in person and through different media outlets.

The book ends on a shockingly good note. Reading the topic of environmental issues, I have already conditioned myself to be ready for somber endings, but Fleischman ends his take on the issues with hope. A smart play on Fleischman’s side, a book targeted towards the vast audience of millennials needs to motive. Fleischman gives the reader the tools to properly tackle the issues, but most importantly gives them a glimmer of hope.

Fleischman also structured the novel so it functions the same way a textbook does. He included several aspects of the book that solidify its credibility along with its power to give tools to the reader. The book has a glossary, bibliography, index, references to websites, and resources from other organizations. Having tools like the glossary or index make the book more accessible to readers; the ability to instantly know where to refer back in a book is a great tool to have, especially for science related books. 

After reading Trash, a student will most likely feel that the issue of trash is too big for anyone to deal with, but Eyes Wide Open provides students with some necessary information and hope. 

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The first book in the Young Adult Eco Movement text set is the young adult novel Trash by Andy Mulligan. Trash portrays the lives of three young boys living in a third-world country in the near future. Sadly, these “trash boys” survive by scavenging from the mountains of trash in the outskirts of a large city. The boys find a special piece of trash, which in return turns their lives topsy-turvy. 

Character Introduction:

Raphael Fernandez: Mulligan immediately wants the reader to know the type of character he is, “I am a trash boy with style.” Raphael may be a trash boy, but he takes pride in being one, feeling no shame. Even though he is a child, he plays a crucial core role in the community, which is interesting as to why a whole community would have so much in a young child. As a trash boy, Raphael faces the usual struggles of poverty such as getting food, finding shelter, and having an education. Despite his hardships at a young age, he is determined to leave and make something of his life. His determination might be why the community puts him at the core.

Gardo: He plays the protective big brother role for Raphael. Gardo purposefully never leaves Raphael’s side, making sure to experience what he experiences. A little into the book, a police officer arrests Raphael. Of course, Gardo attempted to come to the rescue by trying to figure what he did wrong and also yelling at Raphael like an older brother would do.

Rat: Mulligan did not spare any writing skill thinking of this character’s name. As someone could easily assume, Rat is a small and clever boy. Described as sneaky, dirty but charming. He is always getting something from the mission school as he loves his portrayal of the small helpless charming child. Oddly enough, he saves the money that he receives, making him one of the wealthiest people on the dump. “The kid was sitting up, just in his shorts, gazing at me with frightened eyes and his big broken teeth sticking out of his mouth.” Even his physical appearance makes portrays “rat” features.

Discussion Points:

Poverty is a very real issue already, which creates a sense of a real world for the reader, especially so when the main characters are children. Despite the terrible place in which they live, the children and their community are still that, a community. Reading a novel that portrays the lives of these people sheds light on the issue. Even without too much outside help, the community still functions and its members feed it hope. The novel continues to ask the reader, “What are you going to do about the issue?” Mulligan is not shy in his writing when comes to presenting the issue of homelessness, especially so when the people living in our trash. 

Mulligan does a brilliant job portraying several different points of views by switching off the narrator in the novel among the three boys. Doing this allows him to more effectively convey the issue of homelessness to the reader. Building off the sense of creating a real world, Mulligan’s switching of narrators provides different points of views to give the reader a more real sense of trash and homelessness. Essentially, adding depth to that of the novel and the reader. How does living in trash shape someone’s identity? How can we as a community help prevent others from experiencing the pain of living with our waste? 

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As students, teachers, and community, we tend to forget a crucial aspect of our everyday lives: the Earth. Spending a day or week devoted to the Earth’s ecosystem will not help us in the long run. But, the Young Adult Eco Movement needs to educate the people before the people can contribute to the movement. The blog will introduce a text set of young adult literature that will present the issue of the lack of care for the environment. 

The text set brings together a wide collection of young adult literature also bringing in a few examples from middle grade and children’s novels to add an uncomfortable element to the learning process. Often, students will develop the idea that certain books are only meant for a certain age. However, learning about the rhetoric behind young adult literature, I have come to realize that any novel can offer new insight on any given topic. 

In addition, every book in the text set offers its own set of issues and discussion topics. With proper guidance, students will realize the connection in the text set, some more obvious than others. After finding or building connections within the text set, students will have the proper knowledge and possible tools to go and participate in the Young Adult Eco Movement. Teachers and students do need to keep in mind that the movement is not only restricted to teenagers. The text contains books of different genres so anyone can join the movement; however, teenagers are at the age that they can make a change collectively. 

Lastly, due to the range of books included in the text set, students can read the text set in any order they prefer. But, to provide a more structured environment, I will still provide an order that will prove most effective for the young adult audience.