Green River by WonKyeong Lee

Green River

WonKyeong Lee
Illustrated by HyeWon Yang

Little Beaver Kobe loves his home on the Green River.  There were many trees and many fish.  But people also loved Green River.  They came with their cars and caught the fish.  They had picnics and left their litter.  Green River became dirty with trash.  Beavers got hurt by broken glass or plastic rings.  The beavers held a meeting to discuss what to do.  Most of the beavers wanted to move away from Green River.  Kobe wanted to keep his home and voted to clean up the river.  No one would listen.  Kobe decided to do the work himself.  He began by clearing trash. He worked morning, noon and night.  When the other beaver’s saw what he was doing they made fun of him.  They told Kobe that he was strange and that he smelled bad.  But Kobe kept working.  Just when the beavers were ready to move they noticed that Green River was cleaner.  Some of Kobe’s friends decided to follow him and see what he did with the trash he took away.  Kobe told his friends he had a secret plan to clean the river and do something else with the trash.  Soon the other little beavers were helping with the secret plan as they hauled away trash each day.  The adult beavers began to wonder what the little beavers were up to.  They followed the little beavers.  They were surprised when they saw the trash had been cleaned and had been made into a little beaver playground. The adult beavers were amazed and ashamed.  They decided to stay in their home at Green River.  From then on they helped with the trash clean up.  This book contains real projects children can participate in to help keep their community clean.  It gives ideas for crafts made from cleaned “trash items”.  There are also helpful suggestions for parents and teachers to encourage and educate children about recycling.

I received this book free from the publishers in exchange for my honest review.