Chick Lit with Katie Green

Chick's been busy preparing meatball stuffing for Thanksgiving and after all the eating he'll need a good nap and a good story! Thank goodness there's a new story to share!

This weeks Chick Lit selection comes from UK Illustrator Katie Green!

Her favorite children's book is:

Dinosaurs and all that rubbish

by Michael Foreman

In Katie's words:

One of my favourite books from my younger years is Dinosaurs and All That Rubbish by Michael Foreman.  Its a wonderful tale about a selfish and horrible human who makes a mess of his planet in a quest to fly away to a distant star.  

While he's gone, this dinoaurs on his planet wake up to the mess he made and are horrified!  They decide to trample all the roads and rubbish heaps and return the world to its former beauty, before the man destroyed it.

Then, the man's rocket lands and out he comes into what he thinks is paradise.  He doesn't recognise that he's landed back on the same planet he came from.  He declares that this new found paradise is his. 

The dinosaurs are not very impressed and they teach him that its not ok to 'own' parts of the world, but that the whole world belongs to him.....and to everyone else too.  In the end, the man learns to take better care of his planet and the 'people' he shares it with.

I love this story for the gentle way it introduces environmental issues, but I also love the illustrations.  I love the contrast in colours from the stinky dirty planet to the beautiful paradise that the dinosaurs restore.  And I love the watercolours used for the dinosaurs' skin; when I was little I remember feeling as though I could reach out and touch them!  I think the fact that it still sits on my shelf more than 20 years later is testament to how good it is...I hope you enjoy it Chick!

Thanks so much for sharing Katie! Chick is very eco-conscious, he always eats all his meatballs and composts the spaghetti. He wishes he had some dinosaur friends to share a meal with! Do you think they would like meatballs too?

Have this story read aloud to you with some crafty graphics here!