I'm Turning Green: A book for little environmentalists

Like many families, ours tries to live just a little more lightly on the planet when we can. My kids know which items go in which trash/recycling bin and that we need to turn off faucets, lights, and power strips whenever we are not using them. We pack lunches in reusable containers and substitute cloth napkins and towels for paper products. You know--the usual stuff.

Still, I do find it hard to explain to my children (they are 3 and 6 years old) just why we need to separate our trash, conserve fuel, limit CO2 emissions, and the like. "Climate change" is a pretty big concept for a small child's brain to wrap around. So I appreciate a new book called I'm Turning Green by Rebecca Mattano, published by a company called The Little Environmentalists. The book gives kids lots of suggestions for ways to reduce, reuse, and recycle, and also provides simple explanations for why it's important to do so ("When we recycle paper we are saving trees and helping clear our air!"). The book also includes two pages of go-green suggestions for adults, such as how to start composting or why you should get a rain barrel.

While I thought the book's text and message were successful, its illustrations were less so. The gimmick is that as she demonstrates all the earth-friendly actions, the child in the book literally turns green: "I put my banana peel into the compost bin. ...All of a sudden I see my stomach turn green." (Yes, the color of the text changes too.) Maybe if this were an illustrated book, the concept would work, but coloring photographs of a real child green has a rather ...disturbing effect. The artwork also includes a jarring mix of shadowed, colored text, photos with a painterly effect applied, and line drawings too; it's all just too much.

When really, we should be cutting back. Right?

Edited to add: Breaking news! I've just learned that Little Environmentalists is going to release a new version of the book this March. Called Go Green With Me, it will use illustrations by Kevin Scott Collier instead of the watercolor-filtered photography I disliked in I'm Turning Green.