Monday, January 9, 2012

Here Comes the Garbage Barge!


Boy, was I skeptical when I first picked up this book. In fact, I would say I thought the cover was downright creepy. The guy on the front looked a bit scary and I wasn't sure how a book about garbage was going to be interesting enough to keep me reading for 32 pages. 
Jonah Winter's Here Comes the Garbage Barge is based on a true incident that occurred in 1987. This book tells the tale of 3,200 tons of garbage that went on a 162-day journey. While some of the book is fictionalized, it is based on actual events. This is a great book for beginning a discussion on recycling, the environment, reducing our waste, landfills, etc.
The illustrations are unusual and this short video shows how the sets were created.