I vividly remember reading this book in the fifth grade. I found it unscientific, wildly implausible, vague, and artistically undistinguished.The book takes place at an unspecified date in the future when the sun is dying for an unspecified reason. The main characters--like many people on the planet--are leaving the earth--however, the nation that they belong to is poor, and cannot afford to take much with them. They can therefore only take a few crops and animals with them, and each person can only take a single book. The main character-- a young girl--chooses to take a green notebook with her, in which she records the events that take place on the new world. This, however, does not excuse the book's numerous scientific flaws, which for me made the book a laughable read. *Stars, when they die, do not shrink and turn blue as the book depicts--they instead turn red, and even a sun-sized star would grow in size. *Though the ship has a computer that is advanced enough to play games with the passengers, it never occurs to the designers to place a library of books in the computer. Additionally, it seems that the author never anticipated the cheapness of computing technology which would eventually arise. *An interstellar journey would never take four years unless one had been using some currently unknown method of superluminal travel. The book makes no mention of this. *The planet is too Earthlike--one cannot expect that there would be anything resembling a tree, a blade of grass, or other feature of terrestrial biology on that planet. *Life cannot become crystalline either from living in a soil or from a diet. This is simply, utterly absurd--such a thing is effectively equivalent to completely restructuting the elementary composition and molecular processes of an organism without killing it--and the simplest way by which one could legitimately explain this concept in a serious work would require the use of extremely advanced nanotechnology. The scientific errors are potentially ignorable, but, as I am very knowledgeable as to science, I found that these books--as well as the poor presentation of the story by my fifth grade teachers--were not at all of any interest to me.* The writing style is only barely distinguished with respect to other authors, and it is funny that a child would even be able to use the word "treacle", as the main character does in the first chapter. *Footnote: I have a grudge against the school, in part for how they taught this book. For example, when we as a class arrived at the scene where the children discover a sweet substance, the whole class did a science essay on sugar, never once mentioning that not all sweet substances are sugars. It was only a fifth-grade class, of course--but I was highly annoyed even then, especially when a kid told me that "sugar was made of carbon dioxide"--a conclusion made from our experiments with using yeast to measure sugar. I could go on to discuss the other crap they taught us, but I will discuss that in a different review.
Why I was required to read this book in the ninth grade, I'll never know. It MIGHT would have been interesting in the second or third grade, but it was entirely too childish to be a required reader in the ninth. For one, it is completely unrealistic and childish, as I have already said. In most science fictions, you know it's not real, but it has some realistic value, and it's intriguing. This book has neither. Second, it was slightly sad, and very depressing. The fact that the Earth was dying, and that the people had become so dependent on THINGS; instead of their own two hands, was very saddening. They had even forgotten how fairytales went, and what clouds were, and some of them were even born on the ship that brought them to this new planet, "Shine". It was just altogether very depressing and, as said in my last review on "Sounder", dissatisfying. The whole book, (which didn't take very long to read, considering that it only has 69 pages), was just very bland and tasteless. If your going to read this, read it in the second or third grade, or with your child.
Do You like book The Green Book (1986)?
The Green Book is a great introduction to science fiction. The book and chapters are short enough to keep the reader's attention. Pattie and her family have to leave Earth because it is dying. They take seeds and a limit supply of essentials from Earth to start their new life on Shine. Each person is also allowed to take one book. Due to differences in environment, none of the seeds will grow properly and the colonists are concerned that they will die. Fortunately Pattie and her friend discover that the glass like plants are a sugar-like edible substance. Classroom use: - introduction to science fiction- various comprehension strategies- discussion or writing prompt on what one book you would chooseDRA: 44GR: VLexile: 980LGLE: 5.5
—Children's Literature Project
I first picked up this short little novel because I had heard of several teachers using it to teach about sustainability. However, I was somewhat disappointed in their classroom plans when I found that the earth in the story is "dying" due to what seems a natural aging of the sun rather than over-extension of earth's resources or pollution, making the main "green" thing about the book its title, which refers to the color of a journal. In any case, it is a sweet little story and worth the time to read, particularly because it provides a gentle step into science fiction for young readers. The morals regarding story and the importance of community, history, and culture are appropriate and interesting. While there's nothing that actually ends up being scary in the story, there is concern about starvation and discussion of suicide that readers should probably be aware of before sharing this title.
—Erin Reilly-Sanders
SCIENCE FICTION - THE GREEN BOOK is about a group of people who leave Earth due to an unknown crisis. They arrive at another planet and Pattie, the youngest girl in the group, is allowed to pick the name for it and decides to call it Shine. Because they are not able to bring much with them, the people bring a handful of clothes, resources, and one book. Pattie decides to bring an empty book. When the people arrive, many of the crops do not grow, nothing is really edible, and a lot of the individuals are worried about what they are going to do. Fortunately, Pattie and her friends find trees that are like candy and also figure out that they are not alone. Moth-people live amongst them, but they are unable to communicate. Eventually, the people living on Shine are able to find ways to eat and survive and through the empty, green book, Pattie records everything that they are experiencing in this new planet. At my current field placement, the third graders are actually reading this book. I have never heard of this book, but after listening to the students discuss the various themes and characters in the book, I was interested in what this book was about. Although some of the scientific ideas in this book are not really valid, it provides a unique perspective and how to be open-minded to new ideas and ways of thinking. It's also a short book that is easy to follow along, so students would not get bored or feel like the story is being dragged on.THE GREEN BOOK could open up many discussion topics such as sustainability, survival, and communication. While learning about colonization in the United States, this book can be incorporated into the history lesson as well. Like many colonists, the residents of Shine have to experiment with many things in order to see what works and doesn't work in this new planet. For a journal entry, teachers can also ask the students to write about what they would bring to Shine if they were limited to only a couple of items. By reading their responses, teachers can gain a better understanding of their students' cultural values and norms. Having the students share their ideas and responses could also open up a discussion about diversity and being open-minded and understanding to other peoples' values and beliefs.
—Ms. Choi
