Through the Looking Glass Children's Book Reviews
Garbage Helps Our Garden Grow: A Compost Story
Photographer: Shelly Rotner
Nonfiction Picture Book
For ages 4 to 8
Lerner, 2010 ISBN: 978-0761349112
We humans create a lot of garbage, and that’s a fact. We fill countless plastic bags with scraps from our kitchens, with grass clippings from our gardens, and with miscellaneous things like old Halloween pumpkins. Throwing things like this away is a waste, because all of it can be composted. All of it can be turned into rich soil, which can then be used to grow fruits, veggies, and flowers.
All you need to start this process is a compost bin in your yard or on your deck. You can compost almost anything except for meat and dairy products. Leftover salad, fruit peels, old flowers, even waste from your guinea pig or rabbit cage can be composted.
Over time the things you throw in your compost heap will decay and turn into wonderful rich soil. You will be doing your part to maintain a cycle that makes use of garbage to create soil that can be used to grow food.
This excellent nonfiction title will appeal to young gardeners and environmentalists alike. As they read the text and look at the photos, young people will discover that composting is a good thing to do for a number of reasons.
At the back of the book readers will find a series of questions and answers about how to compost and why composting is important to do.
