How Green Are You?

As an entertaining informer, Frank Buckland's closest living relative is, of course, Devid Bellamy whose latest 'Green awareness' book is aimed directly at families by way of young children. Bellamy is essentially a friendly man and here he introduces us to his alter ego the Friendly Whale (Water, Habitat, Air, Life, Energy) who sails through his action guide showing us how to live more greenly under these headings. In dustbin, garden, kitchen, supermarket, neighbourhood and bathroom scenes we get helpful hints towards greener behaviour, like 'H.E., Save plastic bags to use again for shopping' and 'A.E., Leave the car at home and walk . . . especially to and from school'. We also get explanations of green terms and concepts (e.g. 'What is recycling') and plenty of 'Do you know?' features where crucial facts and quantities take us by surprise. The basically sound 'do it yourself' ideas are somewhat under-explained, so they will gain greatly from being shared with a responsive adult - but that's all right because, above all, this is a book which will help whole families go greener.