4 Picture Books to Inspire Generosity and Recycling

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4 Picture Books to Inspire Generosity and Recycling

The United Nations nominated 5 Sept, the anniversary of Mother Teresa’s death, as the International Day of Charity. It celebrates global charity work and encourages people to donate their time and money. Another special day in September is Another Look Unlimited Day. It invites us to reconsider items we throw away and determine whether to recycle or donate them instead.

With these two days in mind, the aim of this article is to use picture books to start a discussion about charity and recycling with your child. You can discuss the consequences of trash or how donating can mean so much to others. Books also highlight the bigger picture showing how children can help in their own way, and in the process develop a lifelong habit of recycling and charitable actions.

Letting go of belongings is a process and may be a painful experience for some children. Revisit the idea every 6 months and involve your child in deciding where to donate. Take them with you to learn where unwanted items end up. Taking them through this process promotes a charitable outlook and unclutters your environment. This article doesn’t describe how to declutter, there are many great articles out there describing how you can start. You can find some at the end of this post.

What Happens to Our Rubbish?

Start by discussing why we need to recycle rather than throwing things away. Based on true events Here Comes the Garbage Barge by Jonah Winter illustrates the effects of not recycling. A New York town disposes of 3,168 tons of rubbish on a barge. As the boat proceeds down the coast, every port refuses to accept the cargo.

“For a whole summer, Cap’n Duffy and his little tugboat tugged the garbage around New York… As the summer days got hotter, the garbage grew beyond stinky.” After 162 days offshore the barge finally returns the smelly load back to New York. The book’s wonderful illustrations reveal the (smelly) effects of not recycling. Develop an understanding of recycling and what happens to our rubbish with the links below.

Recycling Resources

BBC Bitesize: What should I do with my rubbish?
Global Recycling: These Are the Biggest Recycling Mistakes You’re Probably Making
Kids Recycle: Tools for Zero Waste Schools (K-12)
My Garbology: Where should my waste go?
Recycle Now: Recycle Week 2017
Recycle Now: Want to Know what Happens to Your Recycling?
Recycle NZ: Recycling Week
Recycling Revolution: Recycling Basics
United States Environmental Protection Agency: Recycle City

Generosity and Giving

Generosity is more than the giving of gifts, it is about our attitude to others and how we act around them. Using book starts a dialogue on not expecting anything in return of charitable and generous acts. Think about whether you inspire your children with your own actions, especially if you want to build generosity into their lives. Help them look for little ways they can be generous. Don’t make it all about big gestures on special days.

The Red Bicycle by Jude Isabella is part of the CitizenKid book collection. These books inspire children to become active global citizens. The red bicycle in the title belongs to Leo who has outgrown it. He donates “Big Red’ as he calls it to a charity for a new lease of life. The organisation distributes old bicycles to families in need. Children ride them to school while adults use them to transport their goods to sell. Big Red travels to Burkina Faso where Aliseta uses it to carry her goods to the local market. It then becomes an ambulance that can travel on the rough terrain to patients in need and becomes known as Le Grand Rouge.

The small gesture of Leo donating his bike changed the lives of so many. Use the journey of the red bicycle to show how donating unwanted items to others makes a difference. Browse these links about how to inspire generosity in children.

Charity Resources

The Balance: How to Teach Kids about Charity
CAR Online: 5 Ways to Teach your Children about Charity
Charities Aid Foundation: Five Reasons to Give to Charity
Edutopia: 10 Videos About Generosity and Giving Back
Healthy Children: How to Inspire Generosity in Children
Integrated Family Community Services: How to Teach your Children about the Importance of Charity
Parents: Raise a Kid Who Gives
TES: Charity resources and lesson plans
The Washington Post: The lessons I learned trying to teach my child generosity

Next Steps

You may find your child wants to take further action on environmental issues. The Tomorrow Book by Jackie French shows how a group of children work together to make positive changes to their environment. They engage in research to seek solutions before taking constructive action. Working together they make a positive difference to their surroundings. The book is printed on recycled paper to mirror the message of the story.

Environmental Resources

Children of the Earth: Recycling
Clean Up Australia: Resources and Learning
Go Recycle: All you need to know to know about recycling for KS1 and KS2
The Greens: Looking after the Planet
National Recycling Week: School Getting Started Guide
Character: Introducing Recycling lesson plan
Kids Recycle: Tools for Zero Waste Schools (K-12)

Finally… Don’t Take it too Far!

Most of us love a good clear out but don’t take it too far! Learn a lesson from Pete the badger. In Tidy by Emily Gravett, he tidies and cleans the forest until it is perfectly neat. He snips off any flowers that don’t match, untangles the fox’s fur and brushes the beaks of all the birds. As the autumn leaves fall, Pete puts them in hundreds of rubbish bags. But now the trees are too bare so he digs them up! The rain covers the forest floor in mud. Pete calls in the diggers and covers the ground in concrete, but now he can’t find the door to his home. After a night outside he soon realises his mistake and sets out to rectify it.

4 Picture Books to Inspire Generosity and Recycling