3rd January the International Year of Volunteers for Sustainable Development

The International Year of Volunteers for Sustainable Development is an idea too big and all-encompassing for the young students I teach, but the idea of volunteering or helping others is not. 

Below are some books that I would consider using over the year to talk about community, our role in community and what people do to help their community.

•  I Am We; A Book of Community  by Susan Verde & Peter Reynolds

•  It's Our Business to Make a Better World by Rebecca Hui & Anneli Bray

•  How to Make a Better World  by Kelly Swift & Jamie Margolin

• It Takes a Village  by Hillary Rodham Clinton & Marla Frazee

• Last Stop on Market Street by Matt de la Pena & Christian Robinson

• We'll Make Things Better  by Ben Gundersheimer & Dow Phumiruk

• Red Knit Cap Girl and the Reading Tree by Naoko Stoop

• Our Little Kitchen  by Jillian Tamaki

• Hey, Wall by Susan Verde & John Parra

•  Follow the Moon  by Philippe Cousteau, Deborah Hopkinson & Meilo So

These biographies introduce real people who definitely did volunteer for sustainable development:

• Maybe Something Beautiful: How Art Transformed a Neighbourhood  by Isabel Campoy & Rafael Lopez

• Food for Hope by Jeff Gottesfeld & Michelle Laurentia Agatha

• The Mangrove Tree  by Susan L. Roth & Cindy Trumbore

• Listen to the Wind  by Greg Mortensen & Susan L. Roth

• 111 Trees  by Rina Singh & Marianne Ferrer

• I Am Farmer  by Baptiste and Miranda Paul & Elizabeth Zunon

• Jose Feeds the World  by David Unger & Marta Alvarez Miguens

•  A Plate of Hope by Erin Frankel & Paola Escobar

While providing links for these books so that you can read the blurbs, I saw how expensive some of these books have become if you are shopping in Australia, but except for the last two these are not new books, we have them in our school library and you may well find them in your library.