Justine McKeen, Queen of Green

October 15, 2011
Inventive and intrepid Justine McKeen, most likely a grade schooler, finds amusing ways to make classmates and community members more environmentally conscious. School bully Jimmy Blatzo takes an immediate dislike to Justine after she fishes his carelessly discarded soda can out of the cafeteria trash. In retribution, he squashes her lunch flat and steals her brownies, not realizing they're flavored with crushed crickets and intended for a science presentation. Aided off and on by her sidekicks, Safdar and Michael, she creates posters out of homemade recycled paper, constructs a greenhouse out of 1,500 soda bottles, and shames a local merchant into being more environmentally friendly. Simultaneously, she gradually defuses Blatzo's anger and turns him into a reluctant ally. While none of the cardboard characters feature significant development, Justine is feisty enough to add some flavor to the mix. Her environmental efforts seem oversimplified and too easily accomplished, though. Brisk, very brief chapters are accompanied by lively full-page black-and-white illustrations. To complete the environmental package, the book is printed on paper certified by the Forest Stewardship Council as being from "responsible sources." Endnotes provide suggestions for environmental projects included in the story, but they don't mention particular websites. While brief paperbacks for newly independent readers are too numerous to count, this one is slightly funnier and fresher than most. (Fiction. 7-9)

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December 15, 2011
Grades 2-4 Young Justine is a devoted environmentalist, and she is determined to get everybody to follow her lead, in and out of school. Problems occur, however, when she embarrasses the school bully, Jimmy Blatzo, for not recycling and when she discovers Mr. Tait, a shop owner who claims to be a proud recycler, isn't recycling at all. So Justine creates a green project that gets everyone on board, including Mr. Tait and Jimmy, and she brings positive attention to going green. Justine is a well-meaning, passionate characterif occasionally bossy and manipulativewho practices what she preaches, whether encouraging eating crickets as a protein alternative, telling classmates how cow methane gas ( F-A-R-Ts ) impacts global warming, or making her own paper. This series opener's short chapters, coupled with interspersed, somewhat generic, cartoon illustrations, make for an accessible story. An appended Notes for Students and Teachers lacks specifics and advocates Internet searching for more information instead. Although lengthier, Megan McDonald's Judy Moody Saves the World! (2002) and David A. Adler's Cam Jansen and the Green School Mystery (2008) offer further green reading.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2011, American Library Association.)