What Matters

PreS-Gr 1—With childlike wonder, a boy discovers the benefits derived from recycling just one small, crumpled bright red aluminum soda can. Mixed-media illustrations depict parklike surroundings, a meandering pathway around grassy areas, trees, and flowers leading to the beach and vast seas. The child's kind act has a positive impact on a snail, an ant, a spider, a worm, a dog, a mouse, a bird, a dandelion, and 73 blades of grass, but even more than all this, the point is made that it is possible for all of us to have a beneficial influence on the world. Does the child understand the full impact of recycling the aluminum can appropriately? Not completely. Nonetheless, Hughes and Hatam make the powerful point that all children can help change the world and make "the earth just a little more blue, a smidgen more green."