More and more and more by Ian Mutch

Fremantle Press, 2018, ISBN 9781925591545
(Ages: 4+) Recommended. Themes: Recycling, Waste, Collecting. Henry Harper loves collecting, so when he collects Kate he asks her to stay with him on his planet. She agrees saying that she just loves collecting and together the two passionate collectors collect all they can find. In funny rhyming couplets the list is endless: balloons and spoons, TVs and a pair of skis, sneakers and speakers, elastic and toys made of plastic. The audience will love predicting the word that rhymes, learning some of the engaging couplets to say for themselves. And absorbing the drawings on each page they will see how the planet is getting very overcrowded. Tons of stuff is illustrated: all the sorts of things that may be seen dumped along roads, or in the sea, or left out for the rubbish collection, things no longer used or unable to be recycled.
And the contrast between the overcrowded planet, weighed down with rubbish, and the last few pages where things are clean and green, will not be lost on the readers.
They will have a great time looking at the detail included on each page, and make suggestions about how each could be reused, recycled or disposed of with care. Leading onto discussions about the waste we produce, this book will form a great cornerstone of any discussion about waste, and channel the class' ideas to how to recycle things in their classroom, at home and in the community.
With the current discussion about waste, this book forms a timely addition to picture books which will initiate class attention on this urgent matter. Eager eyes will scan each page and call out all the things they see that have become rubbish, with the wonderful endpapers reiterating what they have seen in the pages of this book. Teacher notes are available.
Fran Knight