REUSE THIS BOOK

This interactive picture book with board covers promotes environmental responsibility for the youngest consumers.

Text on each page invites readers to do something that will affect the environment: “Point to each budding flower to show the bee where to land”; “Blow on the flowers like the wind. Whoosh!” Following each action, readers are praised for their contributions (in these cases helping with pollination and spreading of seeds, respectively). However, as this book lacks the anticipatory interactivity of Hervé Tullet’s Press Here (2011) or Christie Matheson’s Tap the Magic Tree (2013), the results of the actions can only be imagined. Tracing pictures of trees won’t make them grow. Yes, on the next spread the trees are taller and thicker, but even young children know they didn’t make them grow, so the cheery “Nice work!” seems disingenuous. The explanation of composting is particularly puzzling. Children are told to “shake the bin” to help the waste settle and then to let it sit, but the apple cores and banana peels have obviously still not decomposed when the child is told to “tilt the book to empty out the bin into the garden.” Similarly, on the spread about recycling nothing actually moves when readers follow the instruction to “Tap and drag each item to the correct bin.” The basic message of “reduce, reuse, and recycle” gets lost—this is one of those books that would work better as an interactive app.

It means well, but few young children will be eager to reuse this particular book.