Katherine and the Garbage Dump

Joan Sanderson is a professional storyteller doing “Book Talks” for
Minnow Books.

This is a book with timely themes about garbage, composting, and
recycling. The young heroine, Katherine, comes up with a solution for
the garbage dump in her own backyard. This book is alive with colorful
artwork that has realistic details, as in the office of the Chief of
Garbage; the pages with detailed artwork contrast wonderfully with those
that feature just one person or two huge faces.

Unfortunately, the negative aspects of this book outweigh the positive.
It is one thing to have an adult ignore a child, but the pandering way
the female “Chief of Garbage” speaks to Katherine (“What can I do
for you, sweetie?”) followed by her wisecracking reply to the girl’s
problem (“How come you get to have your very own garbage dump?”) is
just too much. The pervasive bad behavior of adults—and the huge
amounts of garbage—recall some of the excesses in Robert Munsch’s
books, and make this book a trial for an adult to read to a young child.