The Ultimate Survival Manual by Rich Johnson

Great Book!  My only disappointment was that my E-ARC was missing pages so I didn’t get the entire manuscript.

Rich Johnson has written an entertaining and informative guide to survival.  I’m big on survival information and I know that not everyone is.  This is an important book because we are in an environment that is unstable.  You don’t have to go out in the wilderness to be in a situation that requires survival techniques.  There’s a chance that there is a large amount of information in this book you will never need.  However, the one technique that you learn that later saves yours or someone else’s life is invaluable. 

This is a short book and each segment is brief.  Keep it in your bathroom and learn a trick or two every time you sit down.  On page one, I learned something.  Okay maybe learned is not the right word but I realized there was something I hadn’t thought of. Rich recommends that you keep an emergency bag in your office or place of work that includes rugged clothing, socks and a pair of tennis shoes.  The bag is available if you need to leave your work in a hurry and are not dressed for an emergency.  I would, almost, have thought it unnecessary but I guarantee that one day you wear the tight skirt or new dress shoes is the day that the weather turns and you have to evacuate or a shooter comes into the area and you have to flee.

It’s a scary and dangerous world out there.  I just think this book is an inexpensive way to protect yourself.

Michael Recycle and the Tree Top Cops by Alexandra Colombo

What a cute book. Michael Recycle is a green superhero and he needs a vacation. He decides to visit the redwood forest only to find it’s being cut down to make fashion magazines.
The book is reminiscent of Dr. Suess. There’s rhyming and teaching. This is the newest of the series but I’m not familiar with it at all. Which is sad because this was a great book.
The illustrations are bright and inviting in a cartoony way. I loved the expressions of the “villians” when they discovered Michael’s plan to stop them. The Tree Top Cops looked like a lot of fun and there are days I wish I could (literally) crawl into a picture book. I think this would be right on the top of my list for book vacations.
I love the message in this book and look forward to future reads. It’s a fun read for adults and children, though geared towards children.

Watch Over Our Water by Lisa Bullard

Trina is learning about the Earth's water and has decided to save the planet. She shares with readers tips she learns and the reasons why the water is not safe for drinking.
This is a great book. I am so impressed with the format. It's not preachy and it encourages children to take the initiative to reducing water waste. And it's not overwhelming. So many books offer so many solutions that you feel like you can never do enough. That is not true with this one, at the end you feel like the little things do make a difference.
This is a great classroom book with lessons that can vary from geography to science to even math as children figure out how much water they use or is wasted. It's an easy to understand format and the pictures are so inviting and vibrant.
There is just enough humor to make the book entertaining but not reduce the impact of the message.

What Would Buddha Recycle? by Rosemary Roberts

I can't say this was a great book but I can't say it was a bad book either. The book was just okay. If you have never read a book on going "green" or "green" living then this is a really good book, if you have you'll find this book just okay. That's where I was - it was just okay.
Rosemary Robert's book came highly recommended and I can see why. It's a great introduction to becoming more environmentally friend but she didn't really have anything new to add and I think her book is nearly outdated. The print date is 2009 but many of her statistics talk about 2007 and refer to 2010 as if it's some futuristic year. That was a little off putting but not enough to ruin her points.
I was disappointed that she didn't really include more Zen principles or Buddhism into her book. It really felt like a gimmick - with that said I will recommend the book.
The chapters stand alone which if you sit and read the whole thing cover to cover is not always a good thing. The chapters are short and deal with a different aspect of going "green" but she repeats some information. I am sure this is to catch those who will only read the chapters that appeal to them.
Rosemary includes some websites but I would have liked to see a page or two dedicated to all the websites in her book - something that prevented me from having to go through the whole book to find a particular website.
I found her book to cover a lot of information that got me thinking. I like to think of myself as green and she pointed out ways that I hadn't really considered. I don't really think about shoes when I think about buying more environmentally friendly clothes. Even though her chapters are short, they really take the time to explain all the aspects (good and bad) of each particular point. For example, she talks about cotton and how it's processed. How cotton farms impact the environment from water usage to chemicals. She went on to how the cotton becomes clothes and the impacts there as well as shopping concerns. We may buy something that's organic but if it had to travel 2000 miles to get to the store is it really an environmentally friendly item. So many good points. I like that she plays a sort of Devil's Advocate as she writes the book.
Don't let the title fool you - this is all environmental with no religion thrown in. There are short quips about how environmental living can be Zen and a few comments about Buddha at the beginning of the book but it's really just another environmental book.
So be environmentally friendly (and economical) and get this book from your library. There is something for everything - I didn't know there was a humane society program for teens. I know what my son is doing this summer.