reuse – Mom Read It

Green Jolene and the Neighborhood Swap, by Wendy Mass/Illustrated by Billy Yong, (Feb. 2025, Disney Planet Possible Books), $12.99, ISBN: 9781368107563

Ages 7-10

Jolene Greenfield is an environmentally conscious rising third grader on summer break and missing her best friend, Amie, who just moved away. As the new neighbors unload their boxes outside Amie’s old home, she takes a minute to consider how much stuff she has: it’s A LOT. How much of it does she still want or need? Not that much. But the thought of her stuff sitting in a landfill makes her stomach drop, so she and her parents come up with the idea to have a swap meet. As she and her family set about getting the neighborhood on board, Jolene discovers that putting a neighborhood event together takes a lot of work and a lot of tweaking, but in the end, it’s all worth it – and she may even make a new friend in the process. Back matter includes tips for kids on recycling and additional resources. Yong’s cartoon black and white illustrations are fun and keep readers invested in the story. An overall fun and green-savvy book for intermediate readers.

Disney’s Planet Possible books are part of Disney’s sustainability initiative; book content is focused on environmental issues, and the printing of the books themselves take sustainability and conservation into mind. There are free educator guides and activity sheets on the Disney website: get rid of your scrap paper by printing on the other side!

Little Blue Chair, by Cary Fagan/Illustrated by Madeline Kloepper, (Jan. 2017, Tundra Books), $16.99, ISBN: 978-1-77049-755-9

Recommended for readers 3-7

A little boy outgrows his favorite blue chair, so his mother puts it on the curb with a sign reading, “Please take me”. From there, Little Blue Chair follows the chair as it’s passed from hand to hand: it’s used as a replacement seat on a plant stand; a ferris wheel; a bird feeder; a throne, and a chair for elephant rides. It travels to amusement parks, houseboats, and beaches, ultimately coming full-circle as it arrives back where it began. It’s a sweet story about a favorite belonging – it could easily be a toy, as in Kate DiCamillo’s The Mysterious Journey of Edward Tulane – and the power of home, but it’s also a story about the permanence of objects. The chair is never thrown in the trash; it’s used again and again, serving different purposes for different people, all of whom love the chair while they have it. It’s a journey home.

Madeline Kloepper’s ink and pencil illustrations, finished digitally, a soft and gentle, calming to the reader. The palette of opaque greens, reds, dark yellows, and gray-blues gives the story almost dreamlike feel; a child’s imagination realized, from one boy using the chair as a tent, to another using it as a throne, his stuffed toys as subjects. Everything in this world has a story; everything has a value. Read this with your little ones and talk about the stories their toys hold. If you’re in a school, talk about the desks: what stories could they tell?

courtesy of Madeline Kloepper’s website

I’d love to pair this with Mirielle Messier’s The Branch and compare the two stories. They’re both books about reusing and repurposing; one, a child’s chair; the other, a branch from a favorite tree.

Cary Fagan is an award-winning children’s author. See more of Madeline Kloepper’s illustration at her website.

Tag: reuse

Green Jolene: Read it for Earth Day!