Happy book birthday to OUR GREEN CITY by Tanya Lloyd Kyi and illustrated by Colleen Larmour, out today from Kids Can Press!
Overall, a light, positive take on urban community and sustainability.―Booklist
A charming, child-friendly tour around an ideal sustainable city — with a uniquely positive environmental message from award-winning author Tanya Lloyd Kyi.
In this green city, neighbors take care of all living things: people, plants and animals, too! Many people choose a bicycle, scooter or their own two feet to get where they need to go. A family collects the rain to water their garden, while solar panels capture the energy from the sun; pipes gather heat from underground, and a windmill turns to power the community. Residents keep hens and hives in their yards, and care for flower beds that feed bees, birds and butterflies. Here, people all work together to make the city green. Can we do the same where we live?
Tanya Lloyd Kyi and Colleen Larmour have conjured a delightfully utopian sustainable community of the future, and they invite readers on an interactive journey to explore it. Unlike many children’s books about the environment, this is a hopeful and uplifting book that encourages children to imagine what’s possible, with neighbors from diverse backgrounds coming together to care for their surroundings and one another. Green technology and concepts are presented in an accessible way, covering topics from transportation to classrooms to food. Each spread includes a question that asks readers to search for something small in the illustration, and the abundant details in the rich and colorful art make the pages perfect for poring over. Backmatter shares environmentally friendly suggestions to try at home. Strong curriculum links to social studies and to physical, environmental and life sciences.
Tanya Lloyd Kyi is the author of more than 25 books for children and adults, including This Is Your Brain on Stereotypes, Under Pressure and Mya’s Strategy to Save the World. Tanya lives with her husband and two teenagers in Vancouver, British Columbia. Tanya is represented by Amy Tompkins.