Educating Our Children About the Coal Industry and Mountaintop Removal

We have choices to make in the books we read to our young children, and it’s interesting to see how these options have developed and changed over time.  Many of the Grimm’s Fairy Tales and dozens of other stories that were published in the 19th Century are generally considered unnecessarily gruesome by today’s standards, and have come to be replaced by lighter, more uplifting writing that has become popular since.

But there’s certainly no reason that all materials written for children needs to be fiction.  I smiled when I came across this beautifully illustrated book on coal-fired power plants and mountaintop removal, which appears to make the suggestion (I didn’t read it all) that clean, renewable energy may be a better direction for us to take.

Of course it’s possible that the climax is a regression to the 1800s, and a tall woodsman with bulging biceps and a big, sharp ax will come bounding out of a deep pine forest and chop the Koch brothers into human kindling.  Or maybe a witch will toss them into an oven.

I rather doubt it, though; this seems to be a book about a rapid but peaceful migration to green energy – something I believe we’d all like to see.

Photo credit: phoenixnewtimes.