Books on Environment Appeal to Youngsters

North County bookseller Milane Christiansen has her own way of spotting trends. “When you have a bookstore like this (BookWorks in Del Mar) you get a feeling ahead of time--before you read about it--because people ask about things.”

For example, while publishers were still printing books about fad diets and tasty cooking, her customers started asking for books about nutrition and health. “They were concerned about why they were getting ill,” she said. At that time there was little on the market about the subject, but in the next five years, there came a flood of books linking what people eat to the way they feel.

What customers--especially the youngest ones--are asking for today are books about the environment.

“Even with the little publishers nobody’s ever heard of, when I see an environmental title for young readers I’ll order it,” she said.

She orders eco-books for kids because she knows this fall she’s going to get requests for them. “It’s not the teachers cramming them down their throats either,” she said. The kids are interested on their own. Especially popular are American Indian stories showing respect for the earth and each individual animal.

Currently, a favorite title at libraries and bookstores is “Fifty Things Kids Can Do to Save the Planet” by Earthworks, the same publisher that earlier did a well-known version for adults.

Janell Cannon conducted summer programs for kids at Carlsbad City Library and found that “environmental questions are pretty heavy on their minds.”

She ascribes the popularity of books on the environment to “the scary situation--kids know there are problems, but want to feel there are things individuals can do.”

Cannon found herself with an unexpected hit during her summer program: bats. Her suggested reading book list about bats--including titles such as “Silent Visitor” and “Hattie the Backstage Bat”--prompted such interest among kids that Cannon decided to write her own book about these misunderstood creatures.

San Diego-based Harcourt Brace Jovanovich Inc. plans to publish it next year. Entitled, “Stellaluna,” it chronicles a fruit bat’s humorous adventures, survival and friendships.

Cannon had drawn a cartoon strip about a fruit bat to illustrate the library reading list on bats. It contained a sentiment with which many environmentally aware people--especially vegetarians--can identify. Under the headline, “Fruit Bat’s Bad Rap,” there is a picture of the creature saying:

“Man, I eat FRUIT!

I don’t suck no blood.

I mind my own business

... But my name’s still MUD! Such whimsy written for children about the environment was featured in “The Lorax,” by Dr. Seuss, the late Ted Geisel of La Jolla. It has become a classic in this genre and is even required reading in the new environmental curriculum being introduced into elementary schools soon by the California State Department of Education.

Even though environmental education on the elementary school level in this state so far has been conducted on a county-by-county basis, the movement has already stimulated a surge of eco-reading among kids.

This year the book named by the American Booksellers Assn. as the one they most often recommend to customers is a book for youngsters about the environment. “Brother Eagle, Sister Sky,” by Susan Jeffers, won that group’s “Abby” award, competing against books of any and all categories.

According to Marty Platis, a former teacher and owner of The Reading Patch in Encinitas, there is an emerging trend of teaching the environment through literature. She cited the example of the current national and local eco-bestseller for kids, “The Great Kapok Tree,” by Lynne Cherry.

“She’s a writer and illustrator, not a scientist, but she went directly to the rain forest for her research,” Platis said.

Others attuned to this trend include UCSD literature professor Bram Dijkstra, who has written an ecological fable for kids entitled, “The Egg of an Unknown Bird.” San Diego artist Ethel Green is the illustrator.

Dijkstra’s spouse, well-established literary agent Sandra Dijkstra of Del Mar, is confident enough on this one and the trend in environmental books for kids that she’s taken him on as a client.