Sustainability is slowly creeping into the American framework—electric cars, urban gardens, biking instead of driving, to name just a few trends—but it’s still a concept much of the country hasn’t fully grasped. So, it’s only natural this generation’s youth would have plenty of questions of their own.
Ruth Ann Smalley of Albany thinks she holds the formula to explaining green living to kids: equal parts humor and fact.
“You don’t want to lay on the heavy stuff when they’re young … [but] kids want explanations for things, they want to know why you’re doing that,” said Smalley. “Little kids are very concrete thinkers so putting it in terms they can understand is really important and keeping it light, upbeat.”
Smalley tested out that model with her first children’s book published last June, called “Sheila Says We’re Weird.” Smalley will sign copies of her book at the Green Conscience Home & Garden Showroom in Saratoga Springs on Saturday, Oct. 22, at 11 a.m.
“It comes out of the fact that my kids are still pretty young and I read an awful lot of children’s books for many years and thought we needed to see something about this,” said Smalley.
Penning a fiction children’s book is a far cry from what Smalley’s used to. As an English professor at the College of Saint Rose, dissertations and academic articles published in journals were more the norm.
But a sabbatical intended for brushing up on literary critics slowly morphed into a hungry interest in holistic education and overall environmental sustainability.
“I became very involved in the pedagogy of ecology and I gravitated there because I was in a college setting and I got really swept up in reading about how systems were in decline,” said Smalley. “I was shocked at what I was reading, how serious the situation was.”
When people began reading her blog and column for the Honest Weight Food Co-op’s newsletter, she transitioned into writing children’s books on those topics.
“I have four or five other manuscripts looking for a home,” said Smalley. “One is for 8- to 12-year-olds and almost all are on similar themes of how do systems work ecologically and how are we part of those systems.”
“Sheila Says We’re Weird” is the story of a young girl who is fascinated by her neighbors, a family who cooks their own food, composts, hangs clothes on a clothesline and other environmentally friendly practices.
“I wanted a humorous take on how people might look at what each other is doing,” said Smalley. “I wrote it for Sheila and the kids who are curious and don’t understand what their neighbors are doing, but also kids like the one in the story who maybe feel a little out of place among their peers because they are living a different way.”
Smalley tries to implement some of the alternative lifestyle choices that her imaginary Sheila is perplexed by into her own family unit.
“We’re trying to do the hanging out the wash thing. We have the wood stove like in the book … the books shows heating your immediate space and now the whole house,” said Smalley. “We try to bike and walk as much as possible. I got a fully functioning can of worms in my basement so we’ll try worm composting and I try to do backyard gardening.”
She’s also involved with Transition Town, a rapidly growing movement that addresses how communities can tackle things like climate changes, fuel costs and other environmental impacts.
“We’re trying to get people from all walks of life and parts of the community to come together and talk to each other about their vision of how they want life in their community to be,” said Smalley. “It’s a vibrant, exciting model.”
Smalley is in search of a book agent so she can get more books published.
“I have too many manuscripts to try to track down appropriate publishers,” said Smalley. “I need someone to help me.”
“Sheila Says We’re Weird” is available at tilburyhouse.com. Green Conscience Home & Garden Showroom is located at 33 Church St. in Saratoga Springs. The book signing is free.
