The Soda Bottle School: A True Story of Recycling, Teamwork, and One Crazy Idea

Gr 1–3—Reuse and recycling are combined with ingenuity, as the people of the small town of Granados in Guatemala pull together to solve two large problems: the prevalence of litter and a cramped, unfinished school building. Kutner, a teacher who noticed that a plastic soda bottle is the same width as a building frame, cowrote the book, grounding the story in authenticity as she focused on the enthusiasm of one of her students, a fourth-grader named Fernando. Fernando's energy and excitement is what spurred his classmates and the rest of the town to gather bottles, stuff them with inorganic trash, and stack them together to eventually form the walls of their new school. Watercolor illustrations aptly capture these scenes, though readers fascinated by the real story may want more photographs in addition to the two provided in the back matter (more can be found on the Hug It Forward website, the organization receiving part of Suzanne Slade's book profits). A great pick for those looking for stories about teamwork, activism, and environmental issues.—Joanna K. Fabicon, Los Angeles Public Library