Blog Action Day

Today is Blog Action Day, when bloggers across the world will write posts related to a single issue: the environment. The idea is to raise awareness across the spectrum of readers about the importance of considering the environment.

In that spirit, I offer you some Jewish titles with an environmental slant. Annotations are from the Jewish Valuesfinder. Enjoy!

> Behold the Trees by Sue Alexander, Scholastic, 2001

Recalling the history of Eretz Yisrael from Canaanite times to the founding of the modern state, this beautifully designed book has splendid illustrations that mirror the rise, trials, and achievements of the Jewish people as reflected by Israel's trees.

> This is the World That God Made by Rhonda Gowler Greene, Eerdmans, 2002

Dazzling color illustrations, full of curves and movement, are the highlight of this retelling of the Creation story. The text is patterned after "This Is the House That Jack Built" and the language is spare and simple. The inclusive intent of the book is clear: Adam and Eve are portrayed as being of two different races. Not directed to a specifically Jewish audience, this is ecumenical in approach. It is excellent for reading aloud.

> Pearl Moskowitz's Last Stand by Arthur Levine, Tambourine Books, 1993

A wonderful story, with equally wonderful illustrations, about an elderly woman who decides she will save the last tree on her street from being cut down. She and a group of ethnically diverse friends use their wiles as bubbes to divert an earnest young bureaucrat from his efforts at urban renewal. He is no match for them and the tree survives. Written in tongue-in-cheek style, this is a delightful look at not-so-passive resistance on behalf of the environment.

> In Our Image: God's First Creatures by Nancy Sohn Swartz, Jewish Lights, 1998

All of G-d's creation gather to witness the creation of man and woman and each gives the new humans a gift based on its own nature: laziness from the lizard, curiosity from the chimpanzee, warmth from the sun, etc. G-d adds to those gifts goodness, love, and kindness so that humanity will live in harmony with nature. Deeply colored illustrations have fluid, sweeping lines.