‘Green’ Books

You can’t get away from “green” books these days.In kids’ books, though, environmental concerns are no mere trend. A well-developed conscience, occasionally veering toward the didactic, seems a natural function of children’s publishing, and natural-history themes are a staple.

From this year’s vast harvest, the unanimous top choice of my resident panel of child experts was D Is for Dolphin (Windom Books, P.O. Box 6444, Santa Fe, NM 87502: $18.95; ages 4 to 8). From A to Z, writer Cami Berg offers 26 noteworthy attributes of these perpetually smiling creatures, adding a glossary biased against keeping dolphins in captivity. The ultra-realistic, shimmering blue acrylic paintings are by Janet Biondi, whose association with dolphins includes work with at least one celebrity (Flipper). With its thrilling close-ups, this handsomely designed, exquisitely printed book is the next best thing to having a dolphin in the back-yard pool.

The panel’s quirky runner-up was Cactus Hotel (Henry Holt: $15.95; ages 4 to 8), regarding the life and times (some 200 years) of the noble saguaro cactus of the Sonoran Desert. The tale is more startling than you might think; with just the kinds of details a small child can relate to, author Brenda Z. Guiberson proves that a book for the very young can have a cactus as a main character. The illustrations, by Megan Lloyd, portray with painstaking clarity the occasionally unbelievable functions of the cactus, chiefly its use as a hotel by desert creatures.

An even quirkier title is Peter Parnall’s homage to The Rock (Macmillan: $14.95; ages 5 to 8). The three-time Caldecott Honor Book author-artist has designed a convincing ode to a particular rock that supplies shelter and sustenance to various animals and people over the years. The story does have a moral, but the way a little boy sums it up as he leaves the rock is hard to resist: “He thought it would be good to take care of it, for the next guy.”

For a song of praise to an entire mountain range, look up . . . to Sierra (HarperCollins: $14.95; ages 4 to 8), the third collaboration between Diane Siebert and Wendell Minor. The poet and painter must be physically fit as well as artistically inclined: Before well-known book-jacket illustrator Minor began these paintings, he hiked Yosemite’s High Sierra Loop, while Siebert has camped and hiked throughout the Sierra Nevada. Their stately tribute makes a mountain both inspiration and narrator. It describes, Walt Whitman-style, its own life forms, history, weather and benefits to humanity--in whose hands its fate rests: “And what my course of life will be/Depends on how man cares for me.”

Selection of just the right point of view, such as that of a mountain, can wield magic. Want to know about bears, for example? Get inside the mind of one, in Bear (Philomel: $14.95; ages 4 to 8), written and illustrated with dramatic watercolors by Caldecott Medalist John Schoenherr. Schoenherr tells a tension-filled survival story from the point of view of a young bear forced to start living on his own. His triumphs--as he emerges “ready for winter and anything else”--are our triumphs. No particular moral here, just a painlessly expanded understanding of Alaskan wildlife.

For another unique perspective, look through an amazing Window (Greenwillow: $13.95; ages 4 to 8) into the collage constructions of Jeannie Baker. This book manages to encapsule 24 years of environmental destruction--without saying a word. Page after page shows the scene through a boy’s window as he grows up and his neighborhood goes down, from flourishing-forest to ugly-urban.

On the Publishers Weekly children’s best-seller list is The Whales’ Song (Dial: $14.95; ages 4 to 8) by Dyan Sheldon, illustrated by English newcomer Gary Blythe. Haunting oil paintings re-create the fantasies-come-true of Lilly, whose grandmother (much to her great-uncle’s practical-minded disdain) fills her head with tales of singing whales.

Fantasy is always a welcome mode of bringing a moral to life, as another children’s best seller, The Salamander Room (Alfred A. Knopf: $13.95; ages 4 to 8), indicates. The economical text by Anne Mazer, about the orange creature Brian finds in the woods, has the boy constructing an entire imaginary rain forest in his room.

But straightforward nonfiction can be just as lively. The Elephant Book (Overlook Press, Lewis Hollow Road, Woodstock, NY 12498: $16.95; ages 10 and up) offers excellent photographs in a magazine-style layout supplemented by a clear text relating everything one might conceivably want to know about wild elephants and their life cycle. The author is biologist Ian Redmond, consultant on wildlife films such as “Gorillas in the Mist.”

Most immediate of all are those books that take environmental protection as their subject and tackle it in a crisp, bright way. Angela Wilkes’ My First Green Book (Alfred A. Knopf: $12; ages 7 to 10), subtitled “A Life-Size Guide to Caring for Our Environment,” is precisely what it says it is. Hands-on-activities and projects accompany irresistible photography in the style of the much-admired “Eyewitness” books (from the same publisher), in an oversize volume just right for its age group.

Among the myriad books for older kids on saving the planet, perhaps the most noteworthy is Betty Miles’ comprehensive Save the Earth: An Action Handbook for Kids (Alfred A. Knopf: $6.95; age 10 and up). Each section--on water, energy, plants and animals, etc.--includes amazing facts, true stories of kids who’ve made a difference and, best of all, lucid explanations of problems and solutions. Miles, author of such popular novels as “The Secret Life of the Underwear Champ,” clearly was ahead of her time, having first published her guide in 1974. Extensively revised and printed on recycled paper, “Save the Earth” is more evidence that the “greening” of children’s books is not a matter of jumping on the bandwagon but rather a case of blazing the trail.

The sun was high in the sky when he climbed a rock in the middle of the stream and saw one last fish! He stood on his hind legs, let out an angry, hungry, tired roar, and jumped through the air onto it! From “Bear” by John Schoenherr.