The Sustainable School: A Journey Through Time and Energy

Written by Erica Fyvie

Illustrated by Scot Ritchie

Kids Can Press

978-1-5253-0668-6

56 pp.

Ages 8–12

September 2025 

 

As the Grade 6 Eco Club presents their project to conduct an energy audit at the school, a buried time capsule outside the school mutters away, waiting to be discovered and realizing it hasn't had many opportunities to learn. As the kids discuss the upcoming improvements to make the school more energy efficient including a rainwater collection system, a green roof, and solar panels, construction workers outside discover the time capsule—which seems to have its own thoughts as seen by its distinct speech bubbles—left by Class 6 from 1900. In the time capsule is a note from the teacher, Miss  Edna Sorman, who speaks of the impressive engineering of Birch Elementary Public School. So, with that note and the artifacts within, the kids of Class 6 of 2025 begin to see how things have changed over more than a century. 

From The Sustainable School: A Journey Through Time and Energy, written by Erica Fyvie, illustrated by Scot Ritchie

With their teacher dividing the class into 4 teams to tackle the issues of electricity, plumbing, building, and transportation, the Energy League is born. Through discussions and perusal of the time capsule's contents, the students think about the past, what their lives are like now, and then aim to apply what they've learned to predicting what things could be like in 2125, sparking plans for a Future Fair.

From The Sustainable School: A Journey Through Time and Energy, written by Erica Fyvie, illustrated by Scot Ritchie

Within the context of the discovery and the class's activities, young readers will learn about energy, kinetic energy, wastewater measures, retrofitting, and more. We get glimpses into the past when a hand-cranked ice-cream freezer was a luxury at $1.26, when innovations like electric light bulbs  and indoor plumbing were often seen as dangerous, and when the horse and buggy were the norm.  In addition to revealing much about where things were at around the turn of the century (the 20th century), author Erica Fyvie provides snippets about other time capsules, some accidental, some not, like the global seed vault, the Terracotta Warriors, the wreck of the Titanic, Voyager Golden Records, and Scott's hut in Antarctica, as well as reports about recycled building materials, food waste as a source of energy, and zero-fuel transportation.

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From The Sustainable School: A Journey Through Time and Energy, written by Erica Fyvie, illustrated by Scot Ritchie

The Sustainable School covers a lot of information, but it does so in an engaging format. The use of a graphic-novel style to embed history, inquiry-based learning and STEM concepts will interest middle-grade readers and their teachers and parents. It is a story that does not need to be read in one sitting—though it could be—and can be used as a fabulous launching off for a myriad of science lessons on environmentalism and energy but also studies of history, particularly how things have changed. With those query lessons (see above for part of one based on the question, "Can we build a new building with only recycled materials?"; p. 40), Erica Fyvie offers educators a different way of looking at inquiry. She encourages focusing on the past as a step in the evolution of our infrastructure systems and to project how things might just change in the future. And with the illustrations by Scot Ritchie, whose artwork has enhanced the text of many picture books and non-fiction books (e.g., All Our Love, Frederica, and If You Can Dream It, You Can Do It), The Sustainable School becomes a welcome information book for middle graders and their classrooms. I always remark on the lightness of Scot Ritchie's artwork, probably because of his rendering it in pencil and then ink before colouring in Photoshop but it lends itself well to keeping information text manageable and hardly imposing or dull. In fact, Scot Ritchie's characters, who show the wonderful diversity of many classes today, and the graphic-novel format create a milieu for engagement.

From The Sustainable School: A Journey Through Time and Energy, written by Erica Fyvie, illustrated by Scot Ritchie

I really hope that Erica Fyvie and Scot Ritchie can extend this style of non-fiction to other topics, perhaps One Health or education. It is very reminiscent of Linda Bailey and Bill Slavin's The Good Times Travel Agency in the blending of graphics with time perspective and information, and I believe Erica Fyvie and Scot Ritchie honour those who've first accomplished much in presenting non-fiction books in captivating and informative ways. After all, looking back isn't languishing there; it's informing the future.

Ary's Trees

Written by Deborah Kerbel

Illustrated by Sophia Choi

Fitzhenry & Whiteside

978-1-55455-509-6

32 pp.

Ages 5-8

October 2023

 

On March 21, the world will recognize the United Nations-designated International Day of Forests. Sadly, no matter how long forests have been around, in their different forms around the world, there are still those who might take a lesson from Ary and her friends about the importance of forests and see beyond what they can do for us and what we should do to ensure their constancy.

 

From Ary's Trees, written by Deborah Kerbel, illustrate by Sophia Choi

When their island home is longer viable, Ary's father goes searching for a new home, and finds it in a flourishing island. As they begin to prepare the island for their new community, Ary, who delights in the trees, begs him, "Please don't cut too many this time."

She closed her eyes and took a deep breath. The air smelled green. Leaves swished overhead as the tree covered her with a blanket of cool shade. How she'd missed that sound!

Not surprising, with every "chop-chop of busy axes," Ary's heart aches. And though she is assured by her father that, "There are lots to spare," she sees that more and more are being cut, for building, and then for crops, and to construct boats, and then because everyone wants more, more, more.

From Ary's Trees, written by Deborah Kerbel, illustrated by Sophia Choi

Ary is bereft for and with the trees. As the palm trees are cut, brown tears rain down. And when the people can't be bothered cutting, they burn down the trees.

Ary is furious, and some of her friends join her in protest. Still, no one listens. They are but children and know not of what they speak, apparently. Ah, but an island without trees suffers. The land crumbles, the structures crack and splinter, and there is no relief from the sun. Ary's father and the other adults choose to find a new island. Ary and a handful of friends find a different solution, one borne of loyalty and regeneration.

Deborah Kerbel's story of environmental responsibility is still one that needs to be heard and empowered in all. Ary's Trees reminds us that it may be the children who will be the ones to change the attitude of their own generation and the subsequent ones, especially when their elders are not getting it. Ary sees the truth, that thinking that "a little bit more (cutting) won't make a difference" is flawed, that "The trees are here for our use" is selfish and short-sighted, and that the trees are their friends and worthy of consideration and charity.

Though I've reviewed many of Deborah Kerbel's books, from picture books like Snow Days and Before You Were Born (still my go-to book for expectant parents) to middle-grade novels like My Deal with the Universe to her YA (e.g., Under the Moon), this is my first opportunity to review a book illustrated by Toronto's Sophia Choi. Also a surface pattern designer, Sophia Choi creates art that speaks of bold colours and shapes, whether it be palm trees or flowers in the understories, or tree stumps and birds. There's a folk-art vibe to her art that speaks of a natural world that will mesmerize and delight, but that also will be missed when gone.

From Ary's Trees, written by Deborah Kerbel, illustrated by Sophia Choi

Whether you read Ary's Trees with your children or students for International Day of Forests, or save it for World Tree Day on June 28th, or for Earth Day on April 22, or to teach a science curriculum, Deborah Kerbel and Sophia Choi's picture book will demonstrate that trees are more than just a producer of materials for human consumption. Trees are living entities that can provide shade and soil stability, habitat, and food, and provide oxygen while absorbing carbon dioxide. As they live, so do we. Fortunately, the youngest inhabitants of the island, Ary and her friends, were able to realize that we humans have an interrelationship with trees, and all living things, and if we sustain them, then they will help sustain us. (Still a lesson too many developers and even politicians haven't learned.)

 

Stand Like a Cedar

Written by Nicola I. Campbell

Illustrated by Carrielynn Victor

HighWater Press

978-1-553799214

40 pp.

Ages 6-9

February 2021 

 

Let's take a walk, a canoe ride and more with these children of the Pacific Northwest as they honour their ancestors and show respect for the land and its living things. With occasional words in Halq’emeylem and Nłeʔkepmxcín (an extensive glossary is provided), two languages of the Coastal and Interior Salish, Nicola I. Campbell invites us all to join them to understand the importance of sustainability and gratitude as they experience life through the seasons.

From Stand Like a Cedar by Nicola I. Campbell, illus. by Carrielynn Victor

Stand Like a Cedar begins in the spring with a canoe ride in the rain, accompanied by ísweł (the loon).  Spring is also the time to forage for shoots and roots with the child's Yéye (grandmother) but summer arrives, warming the earth (tmíxw) and bringing out a snake (sméyxł) to sun. With late summer comes berry picking in alpine areas, fishing and hiking with the telling of stories.

We listened as our elders shared a song about our ancestors
when they traveled by horse and wagon,
and before that by travois and on moccasin-covered foot,
in search of traditional foods to nourish our families.

From Stand Like a Cedar by Nicola I. Campbell, illus. by Carrielynn Victor

Autumn brings hunting, handled delicately and solemnly.

Grandfather smíyc (deer) visited us. His summer coat was turning greyish-brown.
He shared a story about his descendants and family.
He explained that death is part of our life cycle.
He said to honour our tears as though they were stars in the sky.
He reminded us to take care of the land.

Winter arrives and the bears go into hibernation and the raven and eagle dance in the sky. With each endeavour, the children and their caregivers show gratitude: for the land, for the animals, for their ancestors, for all life.

From Stand Like a Cedar by Nicola I. Campbell, illus. by Carrielynn Victor

Nicola I. Campbell., a Nłeʔkepmx, Syilx, and Métis author whose book Shin-chi's Canoe won the 2009 TD Canadian Children’s literature award and the 2008 Governor General's Award for Illustration, imbues her words with the gravitas of life in the natural world of the Pacific Northwest. There is a sense of dignity and solemnity in seasonal activities of berry picking and fishing, canoeing and hiking, with a recognition of the history of those who came before and those who tell the stories and teach. Her words are transportive to place and times both past and present.

Five kinds of salmon came to visit us.
They shared a story of when our great river was clean.
We could walk on the backs of a million spawning salmon.
Our nets were always full and our children never hungry.

But it's Nicola I. Campbell's final words that are most soulful, filled with gratitude and tribute.

We are Indigenous.
We love to run, paddle our canoes, dance, and play.
When we need to remember our promises,
we stand like cedar trees
hands raised to the sky.

Stó:lō artist Carrielynn Victor may illustrate Nicola I. Campbell's words, as an illustrator is directed to do, but her sense of place and atmosphere add more story. Read between the lines to see the joy of a child running up a trail, or a blueberry-covered face or a boy proud of his catch. There's the cool rain as the group canoes, the overcast skies and brilliant sunrises, and–look closely–the spirits of deer long gone but always honoured. Carrielynn Victor's art which is primarily digitally created gives us more, enlightening and celebrating too.

From Stand Like a Cedar by Nicola I. Campbell, illus. by Carrielynn Victor

Stand Like a Cedar is a strong song of peoples and place. It's emotive and instructive and begs us all to be attentive to how we interact with the land and its life. Gratitude should be the default, not the afterthought.