Catch the Wind, Harness the Sun

Catch the Wind, Harness the Sun by Michael J. Caduto is a hands-on energy book for 8 year olds who would much rather build something than be told about it.

What happens

It opens with a question. What would your life actually be like with no lights, no computers, no recorded music and (horror of horrors) no television or video games?

Then it shows you where your electricity comes from. More than six thousand power plants running around the clock in the United States. Half a million miles of power lines, enough to go round the equator twenty times.

And the way it's made is daft when you see it written down. Burn the fuel, to make the fire, to boil the water, to turn the turbines, to push the current down the wire.

That's the whole approach. Give the child the facts, then hand them something to do.

The first activity is a good example. It's called A Dark Day of Enlightenment, and it asks your reader to live for twenty-four hours without electricity or fossil fuels.

That means a windup alarm clock, because the one by the bed is off limits. No fridge. Walk or scoot instead of the car. Plan your meals in advance, borrow what you need, and keep a journal of what happens.

Afterwards there are questions to answer, and they get harder as you go. Which bit was the most difficult and why? Who in your group took to it and who struggled? What two or three things could you honestly live without?

Chapter two does climate change properly. Carbon, photosynthesis, the carbon cycle, all explained in plain words, with a silly restaurant joke about ordering a carbon dioxide molecule.

Every activity has a Safety First panel and asks your reader to plan it with an adult, which is fair enough given the candles and campfires.

Two things to flag. This is an American book, so the temperatures come in Fahrenheit and the power statistics are all for the United States. It also isn't new. The young eco-heroes it profiles were winning their prizes in 2008 and 2009, and the numbers date from around then.

The physics doesn't date and neither do the activities. You'll just want to say "that was a while ago" when your reader quotes a figure at you.

There's also a fair bit of reading between the doing. A child who wants an experiment on page one and nothing else may drift.

What to read next

For a reader who would rather get their hands dirty than read about it, Green Garden is in the library. That's a story about four friends and a scruffy patch of school playground they want to turn into a sensory garden, with a hedgehog crossing and flowers for the bees.