21st April

Tomorrow is Earth Day, which is a global movement. This April is the 40th anniversary of the first Earth Day. From its inception it has aimed to create awareness of environmental issues and to have people appreciate the Earth's environment. The initial success of the

first Earth Day is seen as the beginning of the modern environmental movement.

There are an abundance of children's books which would be appropriate to share on this day. Any that I have already recommended for

World Wetlands Day (3rd Feb), Clean Up Australia Day (7th Mar) or World Water Day (22nd Mar) would do. You could choose non-fiction books about any environmental issue such as global warming, shrinking habitat, endangered species, etc, but with my young clientele I have chosen to highlight two beautiful non-fiction books which require readers to respond to nature with wonder and awe and which make you want to ensure that the natural phenomena of the Earth continue ad infinitum. The two books An Egg is Quiet and A Seed is Sleepy are by the same author (Dianna Hutts Aston) and illustrator (Sylvia Long) team, and once you have seen these two books you will hope that they have more in mind.

These books are beautiful, full of description and adjectives but remain scientific. There is a myriad of lesson plans using them on the web. The publisher, Chronicle issued them with teachers notes.