Review : William is Going Green!
“William is Going Green” is the first book of a series “William the Garbage Truck”. It is particularly suited for kids from ages of 3-8 and it is written by a father and son team, James Martin II and James Martin III ! Imagine, the son is only four years old and already showing promising signs of being a great storyteller.
The character, William, is a very hardworking smoky white garbage truck working in a city. One day, he finds himself unemployed when there were complaints of him polluting the air. He goes all out to look for another job but is turned down over and over again, as he isn’t energy efficient. When he finally finds a town that he really liked, he finds that only hybrid garbage trucks are hired. Unfortunately, for an upgrade, he would have to find a way to pay for it. In the end, he does get a new hybrid engine simply because he performed an unselfish act. I won’t tell you what it is, you’d have to find out for yourself! Heh…
Now, to be honest, I love ‘bin days’. Every Monday night, we’d rolled out our bins to be collected on Tuesday. We have three bins, green - mother natures’ waste products (shrubs, tree trunks, etc), yellow - recyclable items and red - all other waste products. My boys already know their 3R’s through this simple system of sorting out our rubbish. They also, like me, love ‘bin days’. Especially my 3 year old. He’d yell to me, when the garbage trucks come rumbling by and tell me which color bin has been collected.
When I got this book, to my surprise, it was my 6 year old who got excited by it. He curiously asked me why this garbage truck had arms! Well, I guess our mechanical arms doesn’t look as animated as the ones in this book.
The idea of garbage trucks going hybrid was a little too difficult for my kids to understand. I guess, to them, without a thorough understanding of how an engine works, they didn’t seem to see that it would make any difference. By explaining the difference between the “brown” William and “green” William, they sort of had an “A-HA!” moment. But the underlying message of reducing, reusing and recycling was immediately understood as they practice this on a daily basis. For example, the simple act of using a cup when brushing your teeth helps reduce water wastage.
In a nutshell, a clean and simple book, with easy-to-read words and importantly, a powerful message to young kids, illustrated in a fun, engaging and colorful manner. I found it funny how his eyebrows turned from brown to green too! William is definitely going all out being green! You should be too! 
Any book that has my boys going all “curious george” about it, gets a big thumbs up from me. It shows that it brought out an interest and their willingness to learn!
Title: William is Going Green
Author: James Martin II with James Martin III
Illustrator: Don Berry
Publisher: Dream Liaison (April 1, 2008)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0979946514
ISBN-13: 978-0979946516
I’d like to thank Parent Reviewers for giving this wonderful opportunity in reviewing this great book! Also, kudos to James Martin II for making this book out of at least 25% recycled materials!
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was wondering if they would actually send u stuff since we in aus. how did u sign up la? did they send u the book?