 You love animals. You want to take action for them.
This month's Roots & Shoots Book Club selection—A Kids' Guide to Caring for and Protecting Animals by Cathryn Berger Kaye—will help you do just that. Written in collaboration with the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA), this book from Free Spirit Publishing lays out the steps for taking action to help animals—one of the three Roots & Shoots areas of concern! An international service-learning consultant and the award-winning author of a variety of educational resources, including The Complete Guide to Service Learning, Berger Kaye knows how to guide kids to take action. In this book, she targets groups of 15-30 students in grades six and up, leading them through all the service-learning steps while providing helpful tips and encouragement along the way. In addition to its instructional, write-in portions, the book is full of animal facts, kid testimonials and project ideas. It even has a puppy biscuit recipe! The really cool part is that the book has sections about Dr. Jane's life and a Roots & Shoots group project! See page 21 for the portion about Dr. Jane, and check out page 18 for a spotlight on a Roots & Shoots group in Mbeya, Tanzania, that created a bilingual book called A Field Guide to Birds of Mbeya. Get your copy of A Kids' Guide to Caring for and Protecting Animals at ABCDbooks. If you're a group leader, consider taking advantage of bulk deals and ordering for all the members in your Roots & Shoots group. Then, you'll all be ready to get started: Preparation
Complete the activity on page nine by writing a letter to the Tinker family. Then, think about who else you might write to express your views about animal treatment. You could write to your local officials, to a newspaper editor or even to a friend or family member. Action
Use the book's "Taking Action" steps on page 33 to map out your project and for even more guidance, turn to the Roots & Shoots Community Survey and Project Planning Guidelines in the online Resource Center. Reflection
You've worked hard, and now you deserve to sit back and reflect on your work: What did you contribute to your community? What went well? What didn't? This is also the part where you submit a Project Report to the Roots & Shoots online Project Database! Demonstration
Use page six of the book to help you and your group members decide how to share what you've learned. If you choose to write a newspaper or newsletter article, refer to page 53 of the Roots & Shoots Handbook for tips on getting it published. If you're interested in a mural, find inspiration in the "Creative Corner" section (page 14) of the Spring/Summer 2008 Roots & Shoots Newsletter, which features Rancho San Diego Roots & Shoots in California. If you like what this book has to offer, find more like it from ABCDbooks or download free materials from Free Spirit Publishing.
Animal-lovers can check out these past Roots & Shoots Book Club selections:
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