LITTER -- THE UGLY ENEMY: An Ecology Story

The authors trace the decline and then beautification of a fictional small city to show children how litter and urban ugliness can be combatted. The people of the unnamed city grow careless about garbage and litter after a few factories and more people move in, but the suggestion of a junior high school student leads to a school-wide and eventually city-wide cleanup campaign and recycling program. This suffers a bit from the common juvenile practice of treating dropped candy wrappers and indifferent absentee landlords with equal disapprobation, but the emphasis on positive action is welcome and the real life photographs, Cervasio's expertise as Sanitation Superintendent for East Orange, New Jersey, and the appended examples of beautification projects in seven real cities, make it all the more convincing.