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MY FIRST GREEN BOOK by Angela Wilkes

MY FIRST GREEN BOOK

by Angela Wilkes

Pub Date: Oct. 1st, 1991
ISBN: 0-679-81780-8
Publisher: Knopf

More flash than substance, this striking oversize book gives brief information on recycling and conservation and provides step-by-step pictorial directions for simple air- and water- pollution experiments that, unfortunately, often fail to demonstrate their hypotheses. A seven-day study of air pollution, for example, appears to show that pollution decreases with the length of exposure—the opposite of the author's intent. In an experiment on ``acid rain,'' three plants are watered with different vinegar solutions; after five days the one given the ``stronger acid'' [sic] is dead. Conclusion: ``Acid rain has the same effect on plants as water and vinegar mixed together, but it is weaker and works more slowly''—but the experiment hasn't shown either that rain is acidic or that the weaker solutions are harmful. A conservation kit in the eye-catching color photos exhibits little care for the environment in its use of highly colored plastics. It's never too soon to learn about conservation, but young environmentalists will do better to look elsewhere for ideas on how to save the earth. (Nonfiction. 8-10)