Gifts from the Garbage Truck: A True Story About the Thinks We (Don’t) Throw Away
– Andrew Larson, Oriol Vidal (illustrator) –
Sourcebooks Explore
Published 10 September 2024
♥♥♥♥
Gifts from the Garbage Truck is a narrative non-fiction that has so much potential to be used for class activities about recycling, reducing waste, creative thinking and junk prototyping.
The book tells the story of Nelson Molina, a garbage truck driver in New York City who has collected, repaired and repurposed many items thrown away by the citizens of New York. He has collected so many items, they now form a unique museum, grouped together to tell stories about the neighbourhoods and people of the city.
The illustrations are bold and vibrant, the perfect addition to this story. The story really captures the message of being more aware of what we throw away and how we think about those items, if they can instead be repaired or repurposed. Nelson and his mother make birdhouses from items Nelson finds as a child, he repairs toys to regift and sorts and tells stories from things he finds. All offer perfect entry points for makerspace activities around recycling and repurposing. This book also highlights a career often undervalued, and would be the perfect addition to a unit on communities and occupations.
A great narrative non-fiction title that is the perfect addition to any school library collection.
The publishers provided an advanced readers copy of this book for reviewing purposes. All opinions are my own.
More information
Category: Narrative non-fiction
Subjects: Rubbish, Recycling, garbage trucks (rubbish trucks).
Age guide: 4 and up
Published: 10 September 2024 by Sourcebooks Explore
Format: Hardcover. 40 pages.
ISBN: 9781728283517