Given the large number of environment books on the market, you’d think that yet another one would be superfluous. But this book is somewhat different.

Written in a conversational tone with a pleasant sense of humour, Suzuki’s and Vanderlinden’s basic theme is that if we care about ourselves, we should take care of our world since everything in it is interconnected. The authors focus on six components of our world: air, water, soil, energy, animals, and people. Each component is discussed in terms of how it is used, how it evolved over the millennia, what we are doing to mess it up, and how we can clean up our act. While all this is a lot of information to absorb, the reader is never overwhelmed. Colourful diagrams and comparisons to everyday objects, like Shaquille O’Neal’s basketball covered in plastic, make the explanations easy to understand. The use of legends, myths, and comic strips gives variety to the text, as do the photographs and illustrations.

In spite of the frequent reminders that we need to take better care of our world, the book has an upbeat quality to it. The reader is encouraged to see the world with a sense of awe and appreciation and the last chapter, demonstrating how young people can improve the world, describes the activities of Craig Keilburger, ORCA, and the Return of the Peregrine Falcon Project. An extensive glossary, index and list of skill-testing questions and answers, as well as suggestions of “Fun Things to Do” help make this book a useful classroom resource.