Human Footprint (Special Sales Edition): Everything You Will Eat, Use, Wear, Buy, and Throw Out in Your Lifetime

by Ellen Kirk

What is your human footprint? Well, it's 13,056 pints of milk, 28,433 showers, 12,888 oranges, 14,518 candy bars, and $52,972 worth of clothes, all in one lifetime. Makes you want to step more lightly on the planet! Perfectly timed for Earth Day, this book doesn't preach or judge, but simply shows kids—in an exciting, visual way—how humans interact with the environment and how we can lessen our impact. Astonishing photography captures the full picture of consumption, documenting all the diapers you wore as a baby, the bread you'll eat in a lifetime, and the cans you'll recycle, based on national averages. Tying in with a National Geographic Channel production, Human Footprint is colorful and fun—yet also manages to be a powerful tool for kids to visualize the dimensions of consumption.

Genres: Childrens, Science, Nonfiction, Picture Books, Environment

32 pages, Paperback

First published March 8, 2011

About the author

Ellen Kirk is a writer who enjoys making information fun and accessible for kids. She is the author of the National Geographic Kids book Human Footprint: Everything You Will Eat, Use, Wear, Buy, and Throw Out in Your Lifetime.

Reviews

[Cameron Kelly-Johnson · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very appealing idea of the impact of the average human presented with a visual style that even the youngest could find interest in. The accuracy of the pictures to the numbers of things a typical person uses in a lifetime make the abstract, large numbers accessible. It's a quick read that has very few books to compare to in its content. You could find something similar on the Internet easily, but often the visual touch isn't there. 30+ Full colour pages of impact.

[Kristin Feliciano · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is full of eye popping pictures and facts. I like the way it shows students how much impact they have on the environment. It could be overwhelming for some students because of the busy pages. It is hard for me to turn a book down, but I might pass on this book.

[Mrs. Ruigrok · Rating 4 out of 5]

This eye catching and informative book is full of interesting bits of knowledge.....upper elementary students will love it!

[K.L. Bernard · Rating 5 out of 5]

You must be really thirsty. According to Kirk you will consume 13,056 pints of milk and 13,371 cans of soda too! Every wonder how many oranges you will eat or how many showers you will take? Readers will be astounded at how each of us leaves our mark on this world. Kids will learn lots of fun facts about each can of soda we drink, each diaper that is worn and how long it takes a cow to produce one gallon of milk for us to drink with our cookies.

If you want to know how you can be green, Human Footprint will give you tips and resources for recycling just about everything. The magnificent photos give readers a very clear vision as to how much we all use in everyday products. Parents, teachers and kids will flip through the pages over and over again. This great book will have you thinking twice before you buy clothes, wash your hair and drive to the store. This is an excellent way to introduce readers about saving our world one choice at a time.

[Heidi · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is very eye-opening in terms of American consumerism. It's easy to ignore the vast amount of food, goods, and services that we use. The photographs are especially impressive. It would be hard to read this book and not feel a little guilty about all the stuff we, as Americans, use and throw out. I mean 43,371 cans of soda?! Think of all that sugar. What's even more mind-boggling is the picture on page 20-21 that shows all those cans. Each page also includes suggestions for becoming more environmentally-conscious consumers. This book could be used in many curricular ways, such as math (lots of numbers and statistics), environmental science, and human geography. In addition I think many students will be as fascinated by the information in this book as I was. Highly recommended.

[CanadianReader · Rating 3 out of 5]

Rather like David Smith's If the World Were a Village, Kirk's Human Footprint attempts to make the child reader's material consumption real for him: how many showers in a lifetime? how many diapers? cars? etc. The problem with huge numbers (especially after a while) is that they're just huge numbers--hard to imagine. Kirk has tried to remedy this in her presentation with images of thousands of soda pop cans, or diapers, or loaves of bread to give an idea of the scope of our use of resources. Even with the photos, though, the listing can become a little tedious, losing some of its impact the more the pages are turned.

Canadian readers should know that imperial measurement (not metric) is used, and geographical analogies (e.g. "the size of Texas" or "the size of Louisiana") are most instructive to Americans.

Still, an interesting book to get kids thinking.

[Karen · Rating 4 out of 5]

great visuals of how much we, as humans, waste in our lifetimes

[Jillian · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really like human footprint because it is really cool what you can learn about in your lifetime and the facts teach me a lot of new things that i did not even know!!

[Oppen oppenn]

amakan

[Michelle Gray · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very eye-opening! I am so glad I read and enjoyed this book!