How We Clean Up a Park

April 1, 2014

PreS-Gr 1-These small books won't take up a lot of shelf space, but they will provide value to your collection. Targeted toward the youngest of readers, these series titles offer step-by-step solutions to specific issues and concerns that children deal with, such as doing homework, cleaning their rooms, and recycling. The first-person narratives draw in readers and make the very simple texts (about one sentence per page) clear and relatable. Full-color photographs that directly match the action assist in reading comprehension. At the end of each book, activity ideas are provided that can help kids make smart choices and help themselves and their communities. A solid way to start kids out on the road to personal responsibility.

Copyright 2014 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

February 15, 2014
Preschool-K In a first-person voice, Nelson takes us into one elementary-school class' special project cleaning up the local park. Each two-page chapter uses one sentence per page to deliver the simple step-by-step process: put on gloves, receive a garbage bag from the teacher, divide into groups, spread out, and then go to it. Nelson's voice is chirpy though never condescending and always reinforces what is happening in the photos: Adults help with broken glass. The photos, which take up three-fourths of each page, are posed shots of a multicultural class happily picking up soda cans and newspapers. There is little specificity here, which is mostly not an issue, though given that this is from the First Step Nonfiction: Responsibility in Action series, you might expect there to be an ecological reasoning provided for this cleanupthe sole nod to the environment is a photo of students separating out recyclable objects. Still, this ought to rev up kids for some helpful fun in the sun.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2014, American Library Association.)